David McNamee
01-12-2004, 02:30 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.forbes.com/technology/newswire/2004/01/06/rtr1200631.html' target='_blank'>http://www.forbes.com/technology/newswire/2004/01/06/rtr1200631.html</a><br /><br /></div>Forbes.com comments that Consumer Reports has ranked Verizon Wireless as the best wireless service provider in the dozen markets it surveyed. It wasn't that Verizon didn't have its problems, but "simply had fewer problems than its competitors." According to Consumer Reports, 80% of cell phone users encounter problems. The US carriers have launched an estimated $1.5 billion in advertising campaigns that tout their service quality. This in spite of the fact that they "have not done enough to solve the chronic service problems that affect every carrier."<br /><br />When I come home, I can run my water, or turn on my electronic equipment without thinking. I can pick up the receiver of my land-line telephone and know I'll have a dial tone. I also know that I can turn on any of my AM/FM radios and pick up a signal. When will I be able to grab my cellular phone and just place a call without checking to see how many "bars of signal" I have? When can I stop mentally mapping the dead zones around town where I know I'll lose any conversation I'm having? When, oh when, can I use my cell phone in my living room? Mobile phones are rapidly approaching the point of being indispensable to modern living. However, wireless phone service has not reached the level of dependability required to be a true utility in the way that electricity, water, or land-line phone services are. To be fair, wireless communication is complex. The ability to have a two-way communications broadcast while both endpoints are, in a worst-case scenario, moving away from each other at 75 MPH is a definite achievement in technology. But, so was indoor plumbing at one point in our history. Will the carriers ever provide the reliability and ubiquity needed to make wireless communications a part of our critical infrastructure? Or is spotty coverage and dropped calls a permanent fixture in the wireless experience?