[OAC_Sparky]

paolo,Aug 28 2006, 07:39 AM Wrote:yeah but there were smaller networks and more of them at one point in time in the good ol US of A, and it made sense to invest in analog at the time, but now most of the networks have been boughten out by one another,  and had to migrate sooner or later to GSM to keep their licences.. I also heard theyre mandating to shut off analog TV Transmissions in the states by 2008?
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That may very well be true, but the point I'm trying to make is that here in Canada, on average, we tend to flock willingly to newer technology. For example. we have a higher percentage per capita of internet users than the US.

Apart from the "extra" phone features such as digital services and such, I cannot honestly say that there has been huge technological leaps and bounds in the quality of the phone connection or sound in the time that I've been a cell user.

I've been with Rogers/AT&T since 1983. This is not a direct criticism on them (and I don't want this to start any Rogers bashing -- it's not my intent), but a generalization on the industry as a whole.

So, 13 year later, I still get a poor or dropped signal on the QEW at Bronte Rd, on the 403 at Waterdown Road and on the Ancaster Hill. I'm not in the middle of Buttpoke Saskatchewan (no offense to people from Buttpoke), I'm in the GTA. I'm using what was a year ago a $400 Treo phone; it's not a rinky-dink handset. If you took away the camera, internet, Palm features and text messaging, I cannot say that the actual PHONE service is worlds better than any other of the other 6 cell phones of various sizes that I have stuck collecting dust in a junk drawer, along with their various chargers, car chargers, and headsets that I shelled out money for. If the old NiCd batteries lasted longer, I likely would have had only half that number phones.

In the US, there is a bigger population, and more people that are willing to stick with a technology that --works--. And they'll need to be dragged kicking and screaming to the new age. Newer networks and systems might mean all the world to the administrators and owners of those systems, but to the average Joe who's paying the cell bill, he doesn't care so long as he gets the connection when he needs it.