16 Sep
2012
16 Sep
'12
10:23 a.m.
On 09/16/2012 01:00 PM, Liam Proven wrote:
The whole rest of the world has one mobile phone
system, GSM, whereas
the USA has its own weird one and competing telcos in every city and
state meant that phones could not be used from one place to the next
/in the same country./
You guys even pay to /receive/ text messages!
It looks like pathetic, chaotic madness from over here.
It's the only reason Blackberry took off with its wretched glorified
pagers; that the US phone system was so broken, random and unreliable
that mobile phones didn't take off. When the whole rest of the planet
was going over to cellphones, out of North America we got a souped-up
two-way pager that gradually added phone functionality on.
Complete insanity.
Yes. But remember, in the case of the Blackberry, it's more of a
status symbol than anything else; there have always been better
communication devices. (or at least it "was" a status symbol...now it's
more of an "oh, how quaint, one of the six remaining people with a
Blackberry" symbol)
As far as the insanity, and paying to receive text messages...American
companies artificially create an atmosphere in which the customers view
them as figures of authority, so they will be more obedient when it
comes to purchasing things. Very rarely will an American question
ANYTHING about a product or service, instead preferring to just pay
whatever is demanded, and accept whatever they get in return. Combine
that with the general attitude that "cheaper is better, even when it
isn't", and you begin to see why utter trash like Wal*Mart (the
McDonald's of retail) and McDonald's (the Wal*Mart of food) becomes so
pervasive here...and craziness like paying to receive text messages.
In the end, we truly deserve the poor products and services that we
get, because the vast VAST majority of us just aren't smart enough to
demand more. Its really quite pathetic, and embarrassing.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA