Jason & Benedict,
I think you both are possibly missing a couple of important facts of
mobiles - they aren't popular because you can make a call anywhere you
want, but because you can make _and_ receive calls anywhere you want.
As well, the problem you describe regarding cells is in actuality a
problem the US had early on with licensing of markets and roaming
agreements - not cell sizes. GSM, particularly in Europe where people
are much more mobile across political and market boundaries, was very
definitely a better business and political solution (although arguably
not a better technical one) than the US's "regulatory solution".
Skype and services like it, combined with WiFi services, will very
definitely provide a challenge to traditional cellular operators, but
it won't make them go away. The smart ones will find ways of providing
your data to you in a bundled package, like the cable operators do with
TV+broadband+phone service. Only big companies like Vodafone, DoCoMo,
etc are ever going to be able to give you seamless mobile data or voice
when you are driving down the motorway.
--Kristan
On 20 May 2004, at 07:11, Benedict Evans wrote:
> Perhaps the same people who bought cell-phones even though you can use
> a
> payphone on any street corner?
>
> In Britain we call them 'mobile phones', not 'cell phones',
> incidentally...
[ excessive quoting removed by moderator ]
Received on Thu May 20 15:44:49 2004