Politech mailing list archives
FC: More on Europe, US technology boom, and wireless standards
From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2000 12:02:09 -0500
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Reply-To: "Ira Brodsky" <ibrodsky () datacommresearch com> From: "Ira Brodsky" <ibrodsky01 () earthlink net> To: <declan () well com> Subject: Re: Europe can't match US technology boom --Washington Post Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2000 10:51:09 -0600 X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.3110.5 Although its GSM standard has been extraordinarily successful, Europe has fallen hopelessly behind the U.S. in mobile phone technology, as well. European governments mandated the use of GSM to the exclusion of competing technologies like Qualcomm's CDMA. When Qualcomm began developing CDMA, Europe's mobile telephone experts declared that CDMA was based on bad engineering and would never work. When CDMA was commercially launched in Hong Kong in 1995, Europe's mobile telephone experts said it was too little, too late. Now that CDMA is a commercial success (with approx. 50 million users), European mobile telephone experts claim that they, and not Qualcomm, are the leaders in this new technology -- even though there is not a single CDMA mobile phone network operating in Europe. The Europeans still don't get it. CDMA was invented by what was (at the time) a small startup, and it was brought to market against great odds. The Europeans, in contrast, think that innovation can and must be achieved by decree. Thus, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) has selected "Wideband CDMA" as conceived by Ericsson and Nokia as its third generation standard... Unfortunately, most of the press sees GSM's success as proof that government-mandated standards are the way to go. A Time Magazine article of August 23, 1999 entitled "Why Your Cell Phone Stinks" suggested the U.S.'s competing technology standards have resulted in an expensive but pointless marketing war, spreading confusion among consumers. Two of the hottest areas of development now in the U.S. are wireless data and, more specifically, wireless e-commerce. Within 2 years, affordable 64 kb/s and faster wireless data services will be available throughout the U.S. The Europeans will still be constrained to sending short messages. The policy of government-mandated standards is going to blow up in their faces when they try to bring their "better" flavor of CDMA to market, because while CDMA is a powerful technology, it is not easy to master. Ira Brodsky Datacomm Research Company Chesterfield, Missouri Tel: 314-514-9750 Fax: 314-514-9793 E-mail: ibrodsky () datacommresearch com Web site: www.datacommresearch.com
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- FC: More on Europe, US technology boom, and wireless standards Declan McCullagh (Jan 15)