[citation][nom]thekurrgan[/nom]Not to be devils advocate here, but data ver the air is simply more expensive than any traditional method of providing an internet connection. A tower can only provide so much throughput per sector, and there can only be so many towers in a given area.Cellular carriers are limited greatly by the frequency limitation they have. Here is why data pricing is screwed: There are 4 incompatible carriers operating in the US. From a technology stand point, if you eliminated the 4 companies ability to use a seperate system that must share the air with each other, and put it all together into ONE system that can occupy that entire spectrum, then it would be possible to serve up MUCH more bandwidth for less. Scenario: 1 Carrier style.Screw CDMA, go to GSM / UMTS like the rest of the modern world. There is sprint / Verizons range freed up. Combine T-Mobiles AWS and AT&T's standard 3G + 850mhz UMTS. Now everyone is at 7.2Mbit theoretical link speed on their devices, AND these devices can roam between ALL of the spectrum allocated for cellular providers. This would let the 1 provider have up to 4 times the amount of bandwidth PER tower, as well as opens up a plethora of possibilities for coverage and what not. You then use the existing carriers to pipe in the telephony end of this as well as the data. You then purchase your "share" of this from whomever you choose. This wouldd be similar to the "Direct access" PG&E now offers and fall into the same method used by the national power grid. It would also save the companies money, and frankly with landlines going the way of the dinosaur, it seems like this may be the next step in eveolution for the phone company. But, at any rate the rapage has to stop.TO charge additional for tethering at CURRENT makes HALF sense, but it could be done for a much lower cost than what is charged. Next level of reality: If you want free tethering you get it. I've not seen an iPhone / Android I couldnt tether on yet, legit or not. Bottom line: They dont want to fix the problem so they make it financially unattractive.[/citation]
I say screw GSM. It makes anything around it with a speaker make noise when on a call or switching towers and has lower call quality with more dropped calls. Sounds inferior to me.
I guess that's why we have a choice??
And BTW, China is on CDMA so not "the whole world" is on GSM. Europe isn't "the whole world"