Comments on: Behind the curve

By: Escape Cell Phone Contract. | 7Wins.eu

Escape Cell Phone Contract. | 7Wins.eu — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:35:15 +0000

[…] in Cowtown by Corey Spring � Getting Out of Your Cell Phone Contract — Uweekly.comGrounded In Reality � Blog Archive � Behind the curve Tags &gt No Tags &lt This product is also listed in Business to Business Education New […]

By: coolisrael.com

coolisrael.com — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:21:18 +0000

Israel is NOT a third world country.

Is a pioneer country within the 20 highest ranked countries in most indexes (education, health, income) And even more… in only 60 years of creation and independence

By: Mobile use in a third world country « frjohnsen - Beyond 2.0

Mobile use in a third world country « frjohnsen - Beyond 2.0 — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 05:06:11 +0000

[…] my late colleague Jon Barkan wrote a post on GCI Group’s Grounded in Reality about how great his cell phone coverage was in Israel. I suppose many people wouldn’t be surprised about that, but Egypt on the other hand, is […]

By: The Zone Read » Blog Archive » links for 2007-07-15

The Zone Read » Blog Archive » links for 2007-07-15 — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 03:41:22 +0000

[…] Grounded In Reality » Blog Archive » Behind the curve Jon Barkan wonders why US mobile is behind Israel’s mobile services. The FCC and intense competition are two good reasons. (tags: mobile) […]

By: Fredrik Johnsen

Fredrik Johnsen — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 13:43:19 +0000

I completely agree as well. I really thought the US would have better cell phone services, but after having spent a week in Santa Monica and Napa, CA, I’m quite happy to be back in Europe (cell phone wise). Most of the time, I had no coverage, or maybe one bar, and I could just forget about using WAP or my Opera Mini browser. In Napa, I was effectively cut off from the rest of the world.

My carrier, by default, was Cingular, and no, I did not receive a friendly text message welcoming me to the States.

So the next time I visit the US, I think I’ll leave my phone at home, rather than bringing it as a fashion accessory.

By: Surelys

Surelys — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 18:12:24 +0000

How accurate you are! What’s sad is that the carries, not the people are driving the market, and unfortunately slowing it down.

Do you remember Penny from Inspector Gadget? And her magical, can-do-anything-in-the-world book? Well, apparently they have cell phones like this in Japan and I would KILL to have one of those… but sadly it doesn’t work in the states.

People are slowly figuring it out. T-movile is pushing for wifi cell phone calls, Vontage is pushing phone carriers aside, and MagicJack is pushing Vontage aside (slowly)…

I sure can’t wait for that Go-go-gadget-phone! =D

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 20:37:49 +0000

Couldn’t agree more. Notice how almost all US carriers use a business model based on charging you ridiculous fees until a large enough consumer base revolts? I have to assume that American politics are somewhat to blame here — how else but lobbying could companies continue to charge hundreds of dollars in “upgrade fees” when buying a new phone or “cancellation fees” when you’re trying to escape their horrible service?

For example, free nights and weekends are also uncommon abroad because they’re based on meaningless, marketing-driven concepts of when cell phone use is more valuable.

Reminds me of when companies like AOL used to charge for Internet access by the hour. If only Vonage broke into the cell phone market…