IP: more More re Europe's Internet Lag: An American Fabrication?

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> X-Sender: jwarren () mail well com
> Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 10:37:17 -0700
> To: farber () cis upenn edu
> From: Jim Warren <jwarren () well com>
>
> It may be more a matter of them being fee-phobic -- since most [govt-owned]
> Euro phone monopolies charge by-the-minute for ALL calls ... local or
> long-distance; residential or business.  Can you imagine how much
> web-browsing people would do if they had to pay for it by-the-minute (or by
> the byte)?
>
> Fee-seeking government-monopolized telecomm may be Europe's greatest
> deterrant to their achieving the benefits and efficiencies of "the
> Information Age" -- especially as it regards personal/consumer-level
> e-commerce et al.
>
> --jim, Jim Warren
> Contributing Editor & technology public-policy columnist, MicroTimes Magazine

and Tom is very very right !!!

Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 13:37:55 -0400
From: Tom Rombouts <rombouts () compuserve com>
> Only a few have cell phones.

Whoa!  I think cel phone usage in Europe is often ahead of the U.S., due in
part to our fragmented standards, or perhaps lack of standards.  As I
recall from an article I just read, I think more than 50% of all Finns have
a cel phone.

TWR