Posts tagged “telecommunications”

US mobile phones suck due to geography, history, and bad luck. Low population density kills carrier profits, early AMPS network adoption created expensive legacy problems, and late GSM adoption meant missing out on the SMS cash cow that saved European carriers. Americans got screwed at every turn.

Clay Shirky is worth reading, especially on why cheap Internet telephony is inevitable.

Forty years to figure out that light travels faster in air than glass. Next-gen fiber optics will be hollow tubes filled with air. Sometimes the obvious answers take the longest.