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scotsboyuk
Joined: Jun 02, 2003
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From: UK
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What is the actual state of the mobile phone market in the U.S. at the moment? What do Americans chaps think about it?
"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC |
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Sammy_boy
Joined: Mar 31, 2004
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From: Staffordshire, United Kingdom
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Also, something I've wondered about - what do Americans in general think about text messaging? It is all the rage in Europe and other places in the world, but looking at US films and TV series, I don't think I've come across a single one yet that even has a reference to SMS messages!
p.s. @scotsboy -I hope I'm not threadjacking here, it is linked to your question, honest! I too am interested in what state the US phone market is at too 
"All it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing" - Edmund Burke
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absinthebri
Joined: Feb 11, 2004
Posts: 476
From: London, UK
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I'm interested, too. It seems, from what I can see, that Americans have quite a different relationship to their mobile than Europeans. Is it due to lack of coverage or due to non-GSM systems or is it down to "cultural" reasons?
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Vlammetje
Joined: Mar 01, 2003
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From: Den Haag
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from what I know of my time there, push-to-talk was always a lot more common and popular than text messaging. Probably a cost factor (PTT was free) as well as a network issue.
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plasmadog
Joined: May 06, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Beantown, India
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i think that since there is no gsm network in the us, sms hasn't caught on yet.
but, also maybe because mobile phones/charges are still expensive compared to asian or european levels |
kimcheeboi
Joined: Dec 19, 2003
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From: Abducted by hot blondes to Les
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?
I pay bout 80 bucks a month--800 minutes, (10 cents per minute) unlimited gprs access, 300 texts a month, yadda yadda.
Its not that expensive.
oh yeah and we do have GSM here, they are ugrading to 2.5G (EDGE) right now.
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scotsboyuk
Joined: Jun 02, 2003
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From: UK
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@kimcheeboi
I don't think price is the crucial difference; cultural differences would seem to play a more important role in explaining the differences between the Eurasian and American markets.
"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC |
richy240
Joined: Jan 24, 2003
Posts: 465
From: Houston, Texas, USA
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We've had GSM coverage for almost 10 years now, but only in major cities. We're just starting to get coverage along major highways and in outlying areas.
SMS is starting to catch on, but people have always (and some still do) think that it is easier to just make the phone call instead of typing on the phone's keypad. Now that GSM is starting to gain more customers and coverage, SMS is more common. We just recently (within the past two years) got the ability to send SMS between carriers, and still cannot send MMS between carriers. (I don't know what MMS is like in Europe, but here we are limited to our provider's customers.)
Some companies are still pushing TDMA and CDMA. Sprint and Verizon are two of these companies, and for some reason they seem to be doing quite well. Even though Sprint is very limited in their international roaming, they seem to be very popular with businesses.
The PTT feature seemed more popular in the past, but I think that is because Nextel (the only company in the US with nationwide PTT) generally has shitty coverage.
This is all my opinion, where applicable. I am a big fan of GSM and SMS and I have never had anything but GSM, except a company mobile phone where I had no choice. |
Residentevil
Joined: Feb 29, 2004
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From: Raccoon City, USA
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Americans are lazy, so you won't find many using SMS, trying to write a sentence with a phone's keypad. They rather yak in every possible location, especially behind the wheel. That is the reason you can see bumper stickers here saying "Shut up and drive". 
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richy240
Joined: Jan 24, 2003
Posts: 465
From: Houston, Texas, USA
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Quote:
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On 2004-09-28 21:08:37, Residentevil wrote:
Americans are lazy, so you won't find many using SMS, trying to write a sentence with a phone's keypad. They rather yak in every possible location, especially behind the wheel. That is the reason you can see bumper stickers here saying "Shut up and drive".
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Bingo.
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scotsboyuk
Joined: Jun 02, 2003
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From: UK
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@Residentevil and richy240
Self-depricating Americans? What is the world coming to? 
@all
MMS can be sent to anyone, irrespective of network in Europe.
"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC |
richy240
Joined: Jan 24, 2003
Posts: 465
From: Houston, Texas, USA
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Quote:
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scotsboyuk wrote:
@Residentevil and richy240
Self-depricating Americans? What is the world coming to?
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Hey, honesty is the best policy!
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scotsboyuk
Joined: Jun 02, 2003
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From: UK
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What is the current state of 3G in the U.S.? I am also interested in what services are available, not just handset technology, but the services customers can access from their handsets.
"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC |
kimcheeboi
Joined: Dec 19, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Abducted by hot blondes to Les
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@res and richy-
i saw a woman driving the wrong way on a 1-way street...
yakking on the cell phone 
[addsig] |
richy240
Joined: Jan 24, 2003
Posts: 465
From: Houston, Texas, USA
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Quote:
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On 2004-09-29 00:17:14, scotsboyuk wrote:
What is the current state of 3G in the U.S.? I am also interested in what services are available, not just handset technology, but the services customers can access from their handsets.
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Umm... Pretty much none. AT&T Wireless just recently launched the first 3G network in the US, and its only available in 6 cities (the 6 biggest markets). I don't have any details on this, but you can find information on the web (http://www.attws.com).
[ This Message was edited by: richy240 on 2004-09-29 02:07 ] |
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Posted: 2004-09-28 02:29
