At last someone who has been high in the US telecommunications hierarchy, has spoken up about the lousy state of the US wireless networks. Even if his comments were self-serving.
Former FCC chairman Reed Hundt was particularly rude about the AT&T network, saying that using an iPhone on it was like ‘inventing a Ferrari for a country of dirt roads’, adding ‘we have a pokey, ancient network’.
He’s absolutely right as most Americans who’ve been abroad know. The trouble is that so few, proportionately, Americans go abroad, that there is no common awareness in the US of how shitty their networks are compared to those of other countries.
As the CEO of Freescale, Michel Mayer (a Frenchman) commented last year: “As a user I am amazed that they get by with such a poor quality of service. it is difficult to imagine video to the phone when so many voice calls lose their connection.”
However, if the majority of US consumers don’t realise how poorly they’re being served by their wireless operators, there will be little pressure on the operators to improve their service.
Hence the welcome given to Hundt’s comments, even if they are made in the pursuit the commercial interests of his company, Frontline.
Hundt is hoping to acquire spectrum, which is to be sold by TV companies moving from analogue to digital, with the intention of setting up a national wireless operation
The spectrum is to be sold later this year in an auction expected to raise $20bn. Hundt wants conditions put on the auction to favour Frontline’s proposal of a public/private network which would provide some additional services for public authorities like police and firemen.
There has been some acknowledgment of the fact that the blame for America’s awful wireless networks can be laid at the door of the country’s very commercial attitude to the industry and the lack of involvement by government.
Earlier this year, asked why the US wireless networks compare so poorly with networks elsewhere, Hans Stork, CTO of Texas Instruments, said that the hurdles for the US are: “Large geographical distances which makes it difficult to cover. A free market. Long incubation times for standards.”
Maybe a little less of a free market, as proposed by Hundt, is what the US wireless networks need.
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It's pretty embarrassing that Apple would choose such a crappy provider as it's sole source carrier. Huge gamble, huge mistake! AT&T has one of the worst records in the industry for customer service, not to mention one of the oldest, out of date networks in the country!
For a company known for it's wizzard marketing, how'd you drop the ball on this Apple? Loved the Ferrari comment by Hundt!!!
So how much of this crappy service is due to the fragmented standards used in the US. Europe is almost pure GSM, while the US has GSM, and CDMA, and only recently dropped TDMA. Certainly, coverage is much better in Europe; the only bad spot I personally know is in an obscure village in southern Bohemia, while here in the heart of Silicon Valley, bad spots are abundant! And now this fragmentation appears to be being repeated in the data-enabled enhancements.