Smartphones to launch only in Sep-Oct? :( [Archive]

View Full Version : Smartphones to launch only in Sep-Oct? :(

ShivShanks

07-16-2003, 07:13 PM

I'm getting feelers that Smartphone is going to launch only in Sep-Oct :( Which means realistically it could be Nov ... I'm disappointed considering that SPT launched and I had hoped that Smartphones would start appearing soon.
I just don't understand why the hell must operators in the US trial phones for so long. In the rest of the world with GSM you just buy the phone you want and put in the SIM card. Market forces decide and punish the phones that are bad. This is like if the State Dept of Transportation were to take each new vehicle on a test drive on the roads all over the state before the vehicle could be sold. Where would car (now SUV?) crazy America be if such things were done? I wish the FCC would mandate phone portability within similar wireless technologies (CDMA, GSM) just like it has mandated number portability now. If China can mandate SIM like cards in CDMA phones then why the hell can't the US? Can you believe it that Chinese consumers have better rights in this regard that US consumers? Nuts I tell you totally nuts.

ppcsurfr

07-17-2003, 03:34 PM

ShivShanks

07-17-2003, 06:56 PM

Well, GSM... which started out as Groupe Spéciale Mobile is now called the Global System for Mobile Communication... Now wouldn't it be nice if it were truly global and all countries supported such a standard?

Mabuhay! ~ Carlo

Actually I don't want anything like just one standard without competition. What I want is similar flexibility to change phones in CDMA like GSM. In fact CDMA technologically is better than GSM. CMDA is more efficient in using the spectrum compared to TDMA based GSM. Its also more secure. Plus you get better data rates with CDMA. In any case the future of GSM evolution is also based on CDMA like technology. What is nice is that there is another cell phone technology. What is not nice is the greedy cell phone providers have instead twisted it around to lock in customers to cell phones that only they provide. Basically people are being taken for a ride and its really surprising that no one in the US seems to be objecting to it. All kinds of bills are introduced in the congress. Why doesn't someone introduce a bill to mandate cell phone portability? How does one petition the FCC to introduce something like this?

ARW

07-21-2003, 06:53 PM

Perhaps in the end the CDMA carriers will lose. The only thing that keeps me with Verizon is there better network footprint. By the time Verizon rolls out a Smartphone it's entirely possible that AT&T could enhance their coverage enough that it would be possible to go GSM and avoid the whole Verizon wait.

It seems to me that Verizon just doesn't get the whole picture. All they are is a network. Concentrate on that and move on, allowing people to bring and use the phones that they chose and load the software that they want, as opposed to trying to control the world and nickel and dime people to death with things such as GIN.

Jerry Raia

07-26-2003, 03:57 AM

I'm still waiting on verizon because of thier coverage.

thetruth

07-29-2003, 11:48 PM

I'm hanging on to verizon, but only by the smallest thread. I'm still toting around a Samsung T300 from several years ago b/c I have yet to see a phone worth upgrading too. Good Network, Crappy Phones v. Not-So-Good Network, Cool Phones. Tough decision.