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It’s interesting to see that Europe is ahead of the United States in
at least one technology area – mobile telephones. Not only are they
ahead, but I feel that the lead is by a few light years, although in
reality it’s closer to 18 months (and hopefully shrinking).
BACK IN THE AUTUMN OF 1998, WHEN I LIVED IN
California, I was really proud of my analog Motorola
StarTAC cell phone. Really small and very cool, it
was, literally, state-of-the-art. At that time there were a few
annoying issues with the level of service. The quality was
generally bad (flashbacks to 300-baud modems), and
roaming was not a wonderful experience. When it was possible,
the local calls in the town
where you were roaming were
charged as two long-distance
calls – one from the town you
were calling from to your hometown,
and another from your
hometown to the town where you
were roaming. But you had connectivity, and you loved that.
During the summer of 1999 I moved to Paris and became one
more customer of GSM phones. I had not really given a thought as
to what to expect, and aside from the fact that the transmission
quality was superior, the experience as a whole didn’t make much
of an impression. That is, until I made a trip to
another town in France where I experienced full
coverage. The best part was when I got my bill –
no roaming charges.
Things got even better when I traveled to
other countries on this side of the pond. It was as
if I had gone from one corner in San Francisco to
the next. Of course when I got the bill I was not
as happy, as I had been charged the leg from
France to wherever I was. But it was totally transparent
and that was the amazing thing. I could
be in Cape Town or in Brussels and you could
reach me just by ringing my French number. I
had to do nothing more than turn on the phone.
The other great feature that proved a lifesaver
more then once was the ability to connect my
mobile phone to my laptop computer. This way I
could send those urgent e-mails while in the taxi
on the way to the airport.
Being at a decent level within the bureaucracy
of my company, I have to travel on a regular basis
back to HQ in California. During what I call my
quarterly inspections, it’s been interesting to see
how slowly things have evolved in America. It was hilarious
to witness when, a couple of years ago, AT&T announced their
W-OPINION
by Peter Zadrozny
Light Years Ahead
GSM phones in Europe
Peter Zadrozny is the founding editor and editor-in-chief of WebLogic Developer’s Journal. When he is not working on the magazine,
he spends his time on his real job as BEA’s chief technologist for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
new plan based on minutes anywhere in the U.S. – a really big deal,
but a few years late compared to Europe.
Because of my regular trips to the U.S., in spring 2000 I was
entitled to a Motorola tri-band phone. Again, this was really cool.
Now, not only could I be well connected everywhere in Europe, the
Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Australia, but also that mecca of
archaic analog phones called the United States.
By the way, I have yet to see a pager or beeper in
Europe. Here you use SMS. This is what the kids use
instead of talking on the phone, as it’s a lot cheaper to
send SMS messages, well within the budget of their
allowances.
Europe also managed to get ahead of the game on the
marketing of mobile technologies, and outmarketed the
masters of marketing in the U.S. Sadly enough they did
this with WAP, which was by all
means inflated to the maximum
by the “marketroids.” The levels
of expectations set by them
were totally unreasonable for a
first cut of a new technology:
slow connections and not very
interesting content that never got close to those high expectations.
A case of self-inflicted wounds and, in my mind, a
contributor to the fall of the industry. But even so, I can
still connect from my phone and check the weather in
Oslo and the stock market in New York, and transfer
money from one account to another.
The reason I say that Europe is light years ahead is that
it’s not only me with my fancy tri-band WAP-enabled
phone that can consult the stock prices – anyone in
Europe can. All it requires is a 60-Euros phone, which not
only offers dual band and WAP, but is also an FM radio.
The penetration of mobile phones throughout Europe
is amazing. From 8-year olds in the playgrounds of
Helsinki to taxi drivers in Athens, pretty much everybody
has one. It’s not a luxury item used to show off, as is the
case with many Americans, but a true necessity of life.
There is definitely a world of difference in the U.S. where
the majority of mobile phones are still analog and based
on various incompatible technologies. Where the owner of
the phone has to pay to get a call, similar to the first postal
system started a couple of hundred years ago, when the
receiver of the letter had to pay for the service. I still find it
funny when people in America turn on their mobile
phones to make a call.
G3 might not arrive for a while, but GPRS is becoming
available. This means permanent connections and packet
switching rather then circuit switching. Combine this with the
push feature of WAP 1.2 and no expectations being set by the
marketroids, and we might again have a technological revolution
very quietly starting in Europe.
z@bea.com @
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