European vs. American mobile phone use

[Orlandude]

Interesting comparatives.

I don't think Americans are as much into "texting" as Europeans. By many, it's viewed as "too much of a hassle" and/or "it's easier to just make a call instead of all that time-consuming typing". Convenience. I don't know about Europe but here, marketing is focused on "unlimited calling plans", "free nights and weekend calling", etc....

I'm reading more and more that "convergeance" is clearly on the horizon. Many are predicting that the days of the PC are rapidly coming to an end. There is less and less consumer interest in bigger hard-drives, more memory and the latest version of this or that. The PC will likely go the way of the radio, that used to be a mainstay in homes around the world before the advent of television. Television addresses ALL the senses (sight, sound, emotion, etc...) where radio was sound only and a lot of imagination. In the average home, I think we are coming to a point where the television will be everything. It will be the communications center of every home. The PC, the TV set, the sound system and the radio and telephone will all be combined into ONE. One big screen and one device that does it all.

Outside the home, the cell phone will advance to the point of taking all of it "portable". As it is already, we can use the cell phone for talking, texting, watching TV, getting instant news updates, paying bills on line, etc...

It's boiling down to ONE device in the home and a cell phone. That is all that is needed for TOTAL communications. The land lines will become obsolete as will the TV set and the PC, as we know it today. Even cable TV is already losing ground to ADS (Alternative Delivery Systems) like the small satellite dishes. Cable television has already lost 20% of its base subscribers to ADS. "Wires" and cables will become a thing of the past as everything moves to wireless. The new house of the future will have no wires.

 

[kallipolis]

There are those of us in Europe who would argue that radio has come full circle, and has been reinvented in its digital form as a convenient non intrusive friend.

Certainly here in Greece it is very common to witness young people utilising their mobile phone to tune into local FM radio stations.

At home I listen to world wide radio stations through my satellite dish and digitalised hi-fi system. I do not feel obliged to watch a television screen broadcasting the predictable police or hospital series. It is merely a repeat of "Doctor Kildare" or "Dragnet", with new faces.

Perhaps I enjoy all styles of music to even consider that television programmes should distract my attention from more creative living. There again television can be hypnotic enough to send people to sleep that much earlier in the evening.

As I write this post I am listening to the UK's Classic FM over the internet, playing the sort of mood enhancing music that helps me overcome a grey and wet evening.

 

[Corny]

Could a mod put this link ito the first post for me? I cant do it now.

did that now.

 

[mike_n_herrin]

ah well i guess that sums it up. my phone is a tool i use in place of a land line. primarily for safety in case of accident or what not. i do not love it, i don't need to carry it all the time. in fact most of the time that i'm awake it's off. i also don't talk on it very often. maybe 2-3 times a week.

 

[flood22]

There are big differences in telecommunication in US and the rest of the world, including Europe. As one of the quotes pointed out, European regulations are much stricter, which means there isn't as much wiggle room for creating mobile infrastructure. In the US there are many types of incompatible networks used by the carriers. Part of the reason some manufacturers have done poorly in the US is because their phones simply don't support the networks major carriers require in the US. It's a mix and it naturally hinders product innovation. Carriers aren't bothered to carry the same phones as the other guys if the network they use isn't supported on them...and the customer is stuck in a three-year contract.

As for contracts, I hate them, but they are a part of the mobile landscape in the US. Pre-paid is becoming more popular, but since the mobile market isn't as strongly regulated, the carriers have been largely left to their own methods, and they prefer to hold customers in contracts that are expensive to break. Pre-paid is an expensive alternative and does not usually come with the same features in service as a contract. If it does, they are at a premium, including voice mail, SMS, call waiting, etc.

The land-line phone is still a big part of US society, mostly because it's so cheap to use. Local calls are always free, and there are even plans out there for free national. Cell phones are still seen as a supplement for most Americans--though, I don't have a land-line. My phone number is my cell number. I think this is mostly generational. Younger Americans tend to make cell phones their primary phone and don't even have land-lines at home.

SMS is expensive in the US. Though it's just now starting to be more affordable compared to voice calls. Most mobile plans provide large amounts of voice minutes that can even carry over month-to-month, whereas text is an additional charge for a handful of them. Until recently in the US, you weren't even sure if an SMS would reach someone else if they were using another carrier.

My friends, family, and I mostly have SMS plans and use SMS all the time. It's a great way to communicate when you don't want to be bothering everyone on the bus or at work with a phone conversation--or maybe in a meeting.

Internet access on mobile phones in the US is hindered by the lack of a single network type. Unless you're in one of the higher populated areas of the country, data speeds are usually laughable. Networks are usually regional. You may get great reception in one area, but in another you may have no reception at all because a rival carrier uses a completely different type of network.

It can't all be blamed on government regulation, or lack thereof. The US has a lot of area to cover. It can't be expected that someone in Hibbard, Arizona, have the same coverage as someone in Boston, Massachusetts. I'd hate to pay for the subsidies resulting in the cost of building and maintaining such an infrastructure. On the other hand, it is crazy that there are perfectly good networks out there that customers can't use simply because a rival carrier doesn't support, and doesn't want to support, the network that customer's device requires.

BTW, I love Sony Ericsson. My last phone was a Sony Ericsson flip phone and I absolutely loved it. I had a contract with one of a handful of US carriers that supported Sony Ericsson's network types.

As for Nokia in the US, it was the phone to have before the Razr took over for the carriers that used its network type. I hate Motorola, BTW. It's shoddy craftsmanship, the UI is torture to deal with, and it won't last the average person more than three years before it flakes out.

 

[flood22]

Did you by any chance move to America from elsewhere in the world, maybe Europe?

I've pretty much been in American all my life. I've been to Europe. I was there back in '99 (Germany and Belgium). It was actually before cell phones really took off, but I kept in touch with friends in Europe and it was hard to miss the differences in the way US and European systems.

 

[justgofaster]

As for Nokia in the US, it was the phone to have before the Razr took over for the carriers that used its network type. I hate Motorola, BTW. It's shoddy craftsmanship, the UI is torture to deal with, and it won't last the average person more than three years before it flakes out.

I agree about the Motorola phones being cheap. My last Motorola phone only lasted six years, although admittedly I did abuse it quite a lot by constantly dropping it onto hard surfaces and occasionally into water.

I like my new Nokia phone better, but it looks even more cheaply made than my Motorola. It's starting to show signs of failure at just three months of age (ring tones spontaneously changing, screen blanking out despite full charge, etc.).

I agree that Nokia doesn't understand the US market. Nokia seems to specialize in the "candy bar" phones, which I hate. They're way too big and get easily scratched. And they're way too expensive, too.

I agree that we Americans tend to think of our cell phones as extensions of our land lines; although I, too, have no land line phone in my home. My cell number is my phone number. I gave up my land line phone because I got nothing but telemarketing calls on it (I averaged 20 telemarketers per day!).

I don't understand the American preference for cell phone contracts. Other Americans have told me that prepaid phones are only for people with bad credit and drug dealers, an attitude that seems crazy to me. I like the European model of prepaid phones, so I went with an AT&T "Go Phone" when my Motorola Sprint phone died. I like the prepaid plan better, but some things are annoying. I pay 25 cents a minute, but the minutes get "rounded up". If you come close to going over a minute, you get charged for two minutes. A 54 second call, for example, will cost you 50 cents (54 seconds is close to 61 seconds, which would be 50 cents. Anything just under one minute gets charged for two minutes).