It wasn’t long ago that the US wireless networks lagged the rest of the world in sophistication, reliability and speed.  That may soon change later this year as AT&T finalizes its 3G HSPA footprint across the country pushing wireless data speed to near 7.2Mbps limit. The conventional thinking throughout the last decade was that Japan was at the bleeding edge in terms of wireless data speeds with Europe and rest of Asia not far behind.  The Americas were in an unfamiliar position of a technology laggard in wireless telecommunications for much of the 2G wireless era. So why the big turn around? Simply put, the US wireless market matured and the industry evolved from small regional wireless players into a handful of powerful national carriers.  Also, the botched auctions of 3G spectrum in Europe and the slower-than-anticipated adoption of 3G service in Japan created the perfect opportunity for the US to catch up.

Let’s not forget, there is a tremendous financial incentive for carriers like Verizon and AT&T to upgrade their wireless networks more quickly.  With each iteration of CDMA/EV-DO and UMTS/HSPA, carriers increase their network capacity and efficiency allowing for more paying customers to use their networks.  It can still be argued that the US still falls behind in the rest of the world in quality and selection of wireless handsets - just look at the demand for grey market GSM handsets coming in from Europe and Asia.  But for those who can afford the cost of wireless data plans, 2008 is shaping up to be an exciting time for wireless data services in this part of the hemisphere.



2 Comments

Haha I’m surprised we’re behind Korea…

Finally! It’ll be awhile before everyone catches on though