The mobile infrastructure in US has always been a mystery to me. For a nation that is developed, the mobile infrastructure is definitely confused at best, when compared to the network and coverage in the Asian markets. Asia and especially South Korea has been the front runner in terms of the entire Mobile space, they seem to have the best of networks and best of the mobile gadgets.
US has been playing catch up to the changing mobile industry trends and guess it will definitely continue to do so for some more time. The networks in US have been in complacent mode for sometime with the basic calling service and even that with limited or no coverage in lot of areas. When Apple launched the first iPhone, it opened up the consumers to the idea of accessing data on the move and for all practical purposes. This also exposed the network issues that are prevalent in the country. Then came the iPhone with 3G support, when most of US did not even have a proper 3G coverage and is still true in some cases.
While Verizon had a field day with the commercials showcasing the poor coverage, the reality is that they were not exceptionally good either. They had comparatively good coverage, but did not have data hogger like iPhone until the recent surge with Android phones.
The networks have definitely tried to improve the user experience with some improvements in infrastructure in critical areas and they have laid down the plan towards 4G which is supposed to have seamless network connectivity and exceptional upload and download bandwidths. The reality is that even though some networks like Verizon and Sprint already claim 4G support and AT&T is on its target to get there by 2012, there are enabling a pre-4G network. The speeds and connectivity provided by LTE (Verizon) and WiMax (Sprint) are better than 3G, but not even close the 4G limits that need to supported.
The more surprising part is that this pre-4G coverage is not available in all areas, in fact the Verizon 4G coverage is available in less than 40 cities and Sprint 4G coverage around 70 cities. In spite of this lack of widespread coverage, the networks have been boasting of the launch of the 4G phones with excellent hardware specifications. Thought the phones will perform appreciably at Home or Office networks with WiFi, their usage in 4G capacity is to be seen.
The stronghold and manipulation by the networks is not just in controlling the handsets that are available and locked down, but also in confusing the users of what they are actually getting as part of the bargain. US networks should open up the mobile market for consumers and adopts efforts similar to the efforts to get universal broadband with decent speeds as a standard, there should be a way to set the basic standard and uniform coverage for mobile networks too
Author: Vinod
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