Originally Posted by
ScottC
What new technologies is the US missing? WiMax is in many major metro areas, LTE is being deployed, HSDPA+ is in several cities, US was first with the iPhone and Android etc... In many ways, the US is way, way ahead of the rest of the world.
US has been catching up pretty fast.
A number of countries are piloting LTE the same way US is. The availability of LTE terminals is pretty limited so one cannot really call it deployment yet (anywhere).
A lot of carriers around the world have upgraded their 3G networks to HSDPA+, not "city by city". For example I believe all, or at least two, 3G networks here are HSDPA+. If you look at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolved_HSPA, AT&T was pretty late in the game.
A number of other countries received the iPhone 4 at the same time as US, however one should remember that while iPhone is very advanced in many ways, it's cellular side has never been bleeding edge. My 3G carrier offers HSDPA+ but the iPhone 4 doesn't do it. Also I don't believe US is prioritized by HTC and other Android manufacturers.
What makes US different from rest of the world is the fact that the networks are very different. In most countries you have a number of operators using the same GSM/3G technology using the same frequencies, making handsets compatible with other networks. My iPhone 3GS and 4 were both unlocked and I had a choice of three different 3G carriers, each with their own physical network (two have HSDPA+, I'm not sure about the third) -- in a country of ~5 million people. In the US an iPhone users don't have a choice.
Anyway I agree that US no longer deserves the mobile reputation it has had.