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Cell Phones: Japan vs. the United States

Posted by michael on from the ma-bell-knows-what's-best-for-you dept.

Stirland writes "Cell phones/Connectivity: Japan and the United States: Worlds Apart on Wireless. Interesting analysis of the economic and cultural reasons for why the Japanese kick Americans' butts when it comes to wireless cell phone technology and usage."

1 of 503 comments (clear)

  1. Sum it up by jbridges · · Score: 5, Interesting

    1. US landlines are virtually free (local calls unbilled, long distance 2 to 3 cents a minute with calling cards, or services like BigZoo). So few use Cell instead of landline.

    2. US providers charge for incomming calls, so no one gives out their number, and often leave their phone off.

    3. US workers tend to drive to work. So less idle time to play with phone features.

    4. US system is disorganized so your services and messaging often do not work across providers.

    5. US has FAR higher ratio of PC owners than Japan. So many features like email/messaging are done from PC.

    6. US is a very large place, with many different providers often with incompatible networks. So access/reception is not reliable enough replace land lines.

    To those who say use in the US is low because voice rates are too high here. They are not, they are often cheaper than other countries like Japan, Germany and Finland. But a fixed line is FAR more expensive in those countries than the US.

    Anyway, standardize the system, make rates competitive with land lines and you will see an explosion in use (but that raises the other issue, capacity).