Reuters On Telephone Cultures

mamladm writes "Reuters has an interesting article about the Differences in Telephone Cultures between the US and Europe. It describes how the different regulatory frameworks have created distinct cultures on how telephones are being used in the US versus Europe. The article mainly discusses mobile phone usage, though."

Comments

My view...

[kunwon1]

I'm a born and bred American, lived there until I was 20. I've lived in Germany for the last three and a half years. I've made some trips back to the states, a few months here and there.

In the US, for us common rabble, it's "Do you have a cellphone?" Whereas, in Europe, it's "What's your number?" Most people assume that if you're giving them a telephone number, it's your cell phone number. And they will not ask you if you are capable of receiving SMS, they will assume that you are. It is more common in Europe for someone to have a cell and no landline than it is for someone to have a landline and no cell.

Re:Aha

[LWATCDR]

"This is not surprising. European technology is waaaay ahead of american technology. That's because the Americans are run by the bean-counters (because of the obsession with the bottom-line), who are never on the forefront of technology, while in Europe, people in charge have a more broad education than bean-counters who, there, are mere lackeys instead of the feared rulers they are in the US."

I suggest you read the article.
SMS has never caught in the US because it costs less to actually talk on your phone in the US than in Europe.

From the article
--Americans traditionally have paid to receive mobile phone calls and tend to be less free about giving out cell phone numbers.

--American mobile subscribers get an allotment of minutes for a monthly fee and competition led to packages offering free nationwide calls nights and weekends.

--Europeans buy more limited packages -- especially geographically. Despite investigations by the European Commission mobile phone companies in Europe charge as much as one euro per minute to send or receive calls abroad.

Yea you may get to talk to anyone in your country but the countries are smaller than many states in the US.
The article also goes on to talk about how much more profitable cell service is in Europe than in the US. Seems like bean counters to me.
The Bottom line is in the US you get few "features" and less total coverage of the total country. One the plus you get a lot more geographical area as local and it costs much less per call to make actual calls. SMS is popular in the EU because it is CHEAPER then making a call. In the US SMS is not popular because it is MORE EXPENSIVE than making a voice call. Ring tones? Gee let me pay so I can have a song instead of a ring on my phone? This is a great leap forward? It seems to me that the EU customers are paying a lot more for phone service than the US customers are.
Sure they have a bunch of added features "ohh... Ring Tones". But to actually make a call costs a lot more.