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Reuters On Telephone Cultures

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the all-kinds-to-make-the-worm-turn dept.

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."

2 of 508 comments (clear)

  1. Of course! Different costs by redelm · · Score: 5, Insightful
    There are big differences in Euro & US phone usages, mostly driven by costs. US has had flat rate (fixed monthly pricing) in most areas. Euros have almost always paid by the minute (IIRC except *.fi). This slowed the adoption of dial-up internet, sped up cellphones & broadband.

    Old habits will die hard. I think Europeans will continue to use the phone for messages rather than as a surrogate for being there.

  2. Re:Enough Cell Phones!!!! by Benm78 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Actually, I wonder which technology uses more energy if you account for the infrastructure too.

    Digging and closing holes to fit many many miles of telephone wire will lead to a fair amount of fuel being used. Also, the copper wires have to be produced which is quite energy intensive too.

    I have no idea on the total energy and monetery requirement to operate a mobile vs a land-based service, but I do have a gut feeling that the mobile service will be cheaper to construct in both aspects.

    Of course, there is quite a lot of pre-existing landline infrastructure, but that will have to be replaced some day, and new infrastructure is also required when new areas are built up. If you'd have to start from scratch, the mobile solution seems cheaper and faster to construct... many emerging nations even skip most of the landline phase.