Basically, in the '80s the US had excellent analog cell service (for the time), while Europe completely bungled that one--remember how much analog cell phones and service used to be in 1990 or so in say Germany?
Well I don't know much about the cell phone situation in Germany, but the nordic countries had extensive analog cell phone network (NMT) in the beginning of nineties. With the huge success of GSM phones the old analog network is being phased away and the frequencies allocated to digital phones.
It seems that the US really is a bit lagging behind in going mobile, at least compared to - for example - Finland, where everybody and their dog has a GSM phone. And the large amount of cellular users (more than users of the POTS, if I recall) is not caused by the poor quality of the normal telephone system, we've had completely digital telephone network backbones here for years...
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The amount of ignorance in slashdot forums is a bit disturbing. This one is even moderated upwards!
Have you ever heard about the hydrogen bomb?
Well I don't know much about the cell phone situation in Germany, but the nordic countries had extensive analog cell phone network (NMT) in the beginning of nineties. With the huge success of GSM phones the old analog network is being phased away and the frequencies allocated to digital phones.
It seems that the US really is a bit lagging behind in going mobile, at least compared to - for example - Finland, where everybody and their dog has a GSM phone. And the large amount of cellular users (more than users of the POTS, if I recall) is not caused by the poor quality of the normal telephone system, we've had completely digital telephone network backbones here for years...