Why does it seem that most of the rest of the world has a better
communications system? We often hear that Europe and
Japan are ahead in terms of wireless technology; surprised
Americans have a hard time understanding why they don’t have
the latest in devices and systems. Although there are many factors
that have contributed to the apparent head start of Europe
and Japan, one of the most important is geographic size and
population density. In short, they simply have less space to
cover and often more people in that smaller space.
Cellular gets its name from the system of cell use and
reuse that essentially divides up the area to be covered into
cells. Each cell can only handle a certain amount of traffic
before it, too, needs to be divided into smaller cells to increase
capacity. The first analog cellular systems employed frequencies
that covered a relatively large area while handling a modest
amount of traffic. As the popularity of cell phones
increased, more and more analog cell sites were needed.
Digital 2G systems were designed to handle this increasing
traffic by utilizing more efficient digital systems that required
less power and could fit more calls into the same amount of
bandwidth. These digital 2G systems were not only more
expensive that 1G analog systems but required more cell sites.
This greatly increased the total build-out costs of service
provider network infrastructure.
Because many European countries could fit into the United
States several times over, and Japan could fit into Europe several
times over, European and Japanese operators could roll out
a 2G network with more complete coverage for less money
than could an American operator. We see this same effect in
the coming 3G systems—is anyone really surprised that Japan
will have it first?
Americans shouldn’t feel too badly: the United States is
the home of the PC-based Internet, whereas Europe and
Japan want bandwidth for the mobile phones. By mid-2001
over 65 percent of European Union citizens had a mobile
phone, more than twice the percentage who had home
Internet access. In some countries, Finland and Sweden for
example, mobile penetration levels have reached 70 percent,
and there are some predictions that some countries may reach
100 percent penetration (one for every man, woman, child,
and dog—yes, even pets can wear communication collars that
track their location. Imagine being able to call your pet via the
built-in attached speaker). Mobile communications is a global
$200 billion industry with a growth rate of 12.5 percent a
year. European wireless operators spent an astronomical $130
billion in 2000 on licenses (a staggering amount to spend on
“air”) to offer 3G services, and will have to spend as much to
build out their networks. As global culture continues to merge,
disparities will eventually equalize as each nation learns from
other’s advances.