Sure its possible the wrong choice can be made but that does not over shadow the importance of interoperable technology. In the US we should be able to buy a phone and take it to which ever carrier we choose. It appears the carriers also understand being on the same standard is important as most everyone is moving to LTE.
Quote:
Originally Posted by samab
Governments DO pick the wrong technologies time to time. GSM was a lucky choice, WCDMA was a complete bust --- and the US ended up eclipsing Europe in 3G penetration. This is why every major spectrum license auction in Europe for the past 5 years has been technology neutral.
They designed WCDMA through committees trying to leave as many Qualcomm patents as possible --- some of which turned out to be really useful. The technology simply was not ready for prime time. All the 3G licenses in Europe had to revise their build-out requirements several times --- and still a few carriers missed the revised timelines.
It is a very telling thing that every major spectrum/license auction in Europe for the past 4-5 years has been technology neutral.
Thanks for the follow up.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TenoBell
...as most everyone is moving to LTE.
Has Sprint talked about LTE as their future yet, or are they still holding onto WiMAX?
Sure its possible the wrong choice can be made but that does not over shadow the importance of interoperable technology. In the US we should be able to buy a phone and take it to which ever carrier we choose. It appears the carriers also understand being on the same standard is important as most everyone is moving to LTE.
When we talk about technology --- it's not that it's "possible" that wrong choices can be made. It's 99 times out of 100, somebody is going to make the wrong choices.
With respect to LTE, sure American carriers are aggressively migrating to --- but they are doing it on their own. You just have to look at the Korean government --- they are still betting on WiBro (which is the Korean version of WiMax).
Why would normal people care about interoperability anyway? The carriers are going to give you a free phone when you switch over. It may cost the carriers billions of dollars to build a network, but it would only cost you $100 at most (most of the time, you are getting a free phone) to get a new cell phone when you switch to a new network.
And just look at just how useless simlocking laws are in GSM only Europe --- they have a whole continent of people that can't switch iphones to another carrier. Even if you can unlock your iphone --- a few European carriers don't believe in ETF's, so you have to pay off all the remaining part of your o2 iphone contract before you can even upgrade to the newer iphone.
So for 99% of the normal population, getting out of contract cheaply with pro-rated ETF's and then getting a free cell phone from your new carrier --- is the better way.
Comments
Governments DO pick the wrong technologies time to time. GSM was a lucky choice, WCDMA was a complete bust --- and the US ended up eclipsing Europe in 3G penetration. This is why every major spectrum license auction in Europe for the past 5 years has been technology neutral.
They designed WCDMA through committees trying to leave as many Qualcomm patents as possible --- some of which turned out to be really useful. The technology simply was not ready for prime time. All the 3G licenses in Europe had to revise their build-out requirements several times --- and still a few carriers missed the revised timelines.
It is a very telling thing that every major spectrum/license auction in Europe for the past 4-5 years has been technology neutral.
Thanks for the follow up.
...as most everyone is moving to LTE.
Has Sprint talked about LTE as their future yet, or are they still holding onto WiMAX?
Sure its possible the wrong choice can be made but that does not over shadow the importance of interoperable technology. In the US we should be able to buy a phone and take it to which ever carrier we choose. It appears the carriers also understand being on the same standard is important as most everyone is moving to LTE.
When we talk about technology --- it's not that it's "possible" that wrong choices can be made. It's 99 times out of 100, somebody is going to make the wrong choices.
With respect to LTE, sure American carriers are aggressively migrating to --- but they are doing it on their own. You just have to look at the Korean government --- they are still betting on WiBro (which is the Korean version of WiMax).
Why would normal people care about interoperability anyway? The carriers are going to give you a free phone when you switch over. It may cost the carriers billions of dollars to build a network, but it would only cost you $100 at most (most of the time, you are getting a free phone) to get a new cell phone when you switch to a new network.
And just look at just how useless simlocking laws are in GSM only Europe --- they have a whole continent of people that can't switch iphones to another carrier. Even if you can unlock your iphone --- a few European carriers don't believe in ETF's, so you have to pay off all the remaining part of your o2 iphone contract before you can even upgrade to the newer iphone.
So for 99% of the normal population, getting out of contract cheaply with pro-rated ETF's and then getting a free cell phone from your new carrier --- is the better way.