Cellular Phones in The United States
CELLULAR PHONES IN THE UNITED STATES
di Mitja Pizzedaz, Michele Shaffer
OBJECT
The object of this paper is to analyze the mobile phone market in the United States and point out differences with Europe and Asia. At first, interest on this subject came from simple curiosity, as foreigners in the US, in the telecommunication sector.
As we could understand through our research, the diversity in both usage and diffusion of cell phones in America has its origin in political, economic and technological reasons.
An interview with Paul Burlingame (Senior Product Manager at Qualcomm Internet Services), gave us better insights to understand the market.
In our study we will analyze sales trends, new technologies and the most interesting devices of cell phones developed in the telecommunication sector. Moreover we will focus our attention on advertising campaigns used to make cell phones more accessible to US customers and their possible usage as media for new advertising techniques.
THE CELL PHONES IN THE US: THE STORY SO FAR
The United States was the first country to make large use of the telephone between the 19th and 20th century and the first to develop a system of wireless communication. The US is probably, together with Japan, the leading nation in the Internet business and is always the first country in developing, producing and spreading new technologies.
Paradoxically, at the present time, the US seems to be in the last position among Western countries in adopting mobile phones and services. According to a study conducted by Telephia Inc., an American company working in the wireless research business, in Greenville, South Carolina, there is the highest percentage (68%) of cell phone owners in the US. The national average is 59%, which means 140 million Americans own a cell phone (Advertising Age, 24 February 2003).
If we take a look on the statistics for other countries, for instance Italy, the ratio of owners is far higher. On February the 22nd (Source “La Repubblica”) 82% of 54 million Italians owned a cell phone. Percentages in East Asia and in the rest of Europe are more or less the same.
THE PROBLEM OF NETWORK
When, in the 90s, the wireless communication business boomed all over Western Europe, there was already a widespread set of infrastructures on the continent. Thus, when technology made it possible for private citizans to use cell phones at lower costs, those countries were ready to privatize their networks and to give solid infrastructures to buying carriers. Initially, the diffusion of cell phones was slow. Prices were still high and it seemed to people that that new device was anything but necessary to their lives. Manufacturers like Nokia and Motorola started to pay attention to the look of cell phones and to target younger people. The results were skyrocketing in sales and a huge cultural shift in the entire continent. The cell phone craze had arrived.
And the US? In the States the telephone market had a similar situation, with AT&T being the only carrier working in a similar situation as Europe. The main problem was that, after AT&T split into different Bell telecommunication societies in 1982, the US had no monopoly in the sector anymore. The cause of this prior privatization was the great deregulation during the Reagan Era. Due to the Reagan policy, costs for phone calls fell due to high competition between the new carriers.
This meant that building, development, and maintaining infrastructures’ costs relied on the private companies themselves. In the European market there was, and partially still is, a period of transition between monopoly and free market as far as from the network point of view. The new companies used the previous state communication system, paying a “rent”. Meanwhile they improved their own set of technology, indeed this is what is going on right now for the development of the UMTS. In the States, on the other hand, new carriers had more expenses in developing a more widespread network complex because both the market and the distances were broader. The connection of both political and economical situations meant lower costs for long distance calls and with the Internet boom the interest of carriers was routed towards different directions. As result, the US lost the first big wave of cell phone that occurred in Japan, South Korea and Western Europe. Cell phones had to wait till the end of the century in order to get into the agenda of those majors.
1. DEREGULATION
In Europe, the end of monopolies was followed by strict regulations. Each country set its own rules such as quantity of the spectrum to allocate, minimal service for customers, etc.; always keeping an eye on what was going on in the other European countries. Besides, an international agreement was reached between major companies like Vodafone, T-mobile and Telefonica, to adopt and develop a common radio interface-the GSM- in order to make the international roaming and the interoperability between different carriers easier. The result of this agreement was a common ground on which cell phone companies could work on and, in the long run meant lower prices and stability of the system.
Still now, it is possible to see this joined effort for the adoption of the GPRS and for the next launch of the market of the UMTS, based on the standard technology of CDMA and evolutions.
In the US the story has been quite different.
First of all the US went straight from the analog to digital technology (From TDMA to CDMA). The lack of rules in the 90’s, as result of the free market policy, left many companies free to develop their own technology with the aim of setting a winning standard. The result has been problems interoperability, bad quality of sound, frequent lost calls, big areas of the country not covered by the service, etc. The lack of teamwork led to a non-harmonically developed market with consequences in the quality of the system. As an example, cell phones’ use was led to a contract with a particular company.
AT&T was the first carrier worldwide to set a plan for individuals in 1990, but it was too expensive to breakthrough. SPRINT PCS tried to offer an alternative few years later, trying to improve roaming for the first time.
Instead, the price plan of a more differentiated and segmented policy was adopted for pure commercial purposes (excerpt from the interview with Paul Burlingame, Senior Product Manager at QUALCOMM Internet Services).
Prices had to be higher to cover the expenses because companies ran for themselves.
Instead of a differentiation of cell phone use, only people who needed such new technology for work could afford the expense.
Finally, the share of the electromagnetic spectrum given to American carriers is lower so that it cannot carry the same fraction of information that other countries consider acceptable for a good quality of the sound.
2. INTERNET AND WI-FI
Internet is far more common in the US than in the rest of the world and its influence leaves less space for other technologies. If we think about the quantity of time an American employee spend at his or her workplace, we can see that the Net is pervasive enough to fill most of the day. But, for people who travel a lot and move from the workplace to home, it is worthwhile to have a cell phone. Still, cell phones have a hard time because of the impetuous development of the Wi-Fi technology. Thanks to cheap but powerful towers located strategically in the cities, it is now possible for Internet users to search the Web with high speed connection, with no wires, no charge and, most important, outdoors. Lap tops have become “free” from the constraints of a room and now its is possible communicate with everyone at no cost. Indeed, thanks to the technology “voice over”, phone calls can be made on-line with absolutely no cost for the users and without the troubles that a slow connection can cause.
THE PROBLEM OF SERVICES
The last array of problems is the result of the dysfunctions underlined above. All together, they have led to the following issues for the costumers.
· LOST CALLS AND BAD QUALITY OF THE SOUND
Both of these problems are originated by the incompleteness of the network. The lack of towers for the transmission and repetition of the signal is the first problem. High costs generate priorities in the areas to cover, resulting in dead zones in the central areas, distant from the rich and densely populated cities on the coasts. Huge traffic on a short spectrum often leads to an overloading in the network. But, believe it or not, someone has turned its weakness into strength. Cingular has taken advantage of its unreliability to promote and sell, the Roll-over plan, which has immediately been rewarded with success. Basically, the Roll-over plan allows people who pay for a certain amount of minutes per month, to accumulate the unused minutes and to add them to the following month’s amount.
· THE INTEROPERABILITY PROBLEM
Another factor of dissatisfaction is interoperability. As we have seen, in Europe it is possible to call people with any phone company without problems. The same situation can be seen in Japan and South Korea.
Instead, American carriers are still running only for themselves, and it is not clear how long will take to them to fix the problem. Certainly, this doesn’t help resolve customers’ doubts about the convenience of purchasing a cell phone. Because of the changing fee (usually, around $120-150), people don’t frequently switch companies.
· NUMBER PORTABILITY
The wireless industry has stalled for seven years in the face of federal mandates that would allow customers to keep their phone numbers when they switch from one company to another.
The technology to make this happen is already in place, but the companies are discussing because they don't want to make it easier for subscribers to switch. “Imagine if you were a small-business owner that had printed hundreds of business cards for employees, all containing cell-phone numbers, and your employees had in turn distributed these cards to potential customers,” Sen. Charles Schumer said in his speech in front of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (source: SiliconValley.Com). Schumer introduced legislation he calls The Cell Phone Users Bill of Rights. “If you wanted to switch providers because a cheaper plan that fit your company's needs was available, you could not because of the serious risk that your customers would not be able to contact you -- not to mention the expense of re-printing new business cards… The lack of portability also makes life difficult for the individual cell user, forcing them to contact all of their friends and family to give out their new number should they choose to switch providers.''
· LOST SMS
Leap Wireless tried last June to start a promotion based on SMS. In an article, dated June the 12th, Christopher Saunders, managing editor of InstantMessagingPlanet.com, stated that “Leap Wireless offered unlimited SMS to cell phones belonging to every service provider, for just $4.99 per month. There is no risk to overload the network because of the small numbers of users of the service”. A real interoperability for SMS is not achieved yet, but this promotion tried to breakthrough anyway.
Despite the data that describes SMS as the “next killer application”, the number of SMS sent in the US is still below the average of most of European and Asian countries. If now 1 billion SMS per month is sent in the US, the incredible amount of 7 billions SMS has been sent in China during the first week of the New Year (source: cellularmania.kataweb.com).
A survey by Keynote Systems, found out last June that an average of 7.5% of the total number of SMS sent is lost in the network. It means that about 900 million dollars worth text messages are lost annually. While problems with cross-network interoperability could be expected to be responsible for most of the trouble, carriers also hesitate to deliver SMS messages within their own network. AT&T Wireless had the best delivery success rate within its own network (97.8 percent) and to others (95.5 percent). "If they're losing some percentage of those [messages] especially if it's a high percentage like 5 to 7 percent, it's potentially a high level of revenue that's being missed," said Chuck Mount, general manager of Keynote's Wireless Perspective Service. Carriers in Europe currently generate about 10 to 15 percent of revenue per user (around $14 billion. Source Advertising Age ).
The cause of such difference is due, again, to commercial policies of US carriers. Up to two years ago indeed (PB), there was only one-way SMS. Both senders and receivers had to pay for short text messages, making this service by far less popular than in Europe or Asia. The problem was worsened by the fact that the Internet spread in the states making e-mails more accepted and used, and SMS as well were sent from the Net. The result was an incentive for customers to make phone calls instead of using SMS due to contract fees.
THE SPRINT OF THE US
After having seen the causes that seem to have slowed America’s march toward adopting cell phones, it is time to analyze what can be done to catch up with the rest of the world and what the US are already doing in regard to this.
CDMA: THE LONG WAIT FOR THE THIRD GENERATION
The CDMA, or Code Division Multiple Access, is a digital mobile system developed by Qualcomm and adopted by the American carriers to send data. Its evolution, the CDMA 2000 with the BREW software, is now the most advanced system on the market. As we can see from the data below (Tab.1) the majority of subscribers are located in Northern America and Asia.
(Tab.1) CDMA Worldwide Subscriber Growth Analysis:One Year Period December 2001 through December 2002 and Fourth Quarter 2002: October, November, December
So far the total number of cell phone customers is much smaller than the Western Europe countries (350 millions circa) that adopted the hybrid system known as GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications). But this data is changing rapidly since the GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) was introduced last fall in Europe, and the CDMA 2000 seems to have taken momentum in its run (Tab.2).
(Tab.2) CDMA Worldwide Subscriber Growth Analysis: One Year December 2001 to December 2002 Worldwide Increase: 35,349,000
Another difference that caused a slow development and diffusion in the United States was the very adoption of this new technology. As we said before, the US went straight from analog to digital with the first version of CDMA.
In the late 80's, indeed, GSM was just coming out when Qualcomm started the first version of the network that was quickly adopted by all carriers.
(Tab.2) CDMA Worldwide Subscriber Growth Analysis:
One Year December 2001 to December 2002 Worldwide Increase:
Nevertheless, this gap in Europe made economies of scale possible so that prices started to go down faster than in the US and at the present time approximately 65% of the world's cell phones are still GSM. The technological gap is being bridged in these years with the adoption of UMTS in Europe. The main difference between the two devices is that GSM works as a standard 56K Modem while the DO technology (the second part of CDMA2000) has the same features of a high-speed cable modem (PB).
The CDMA 2000 could represent the chance the US carriers were waiting for in order to breakthrough software, called BREW, a new operating system which promises to be extremely "light" and flexible. It is compatible with most of the software used on PCs, can be constantly implemented via Internet, is easy to develop, and takes a limited share of the operative memory of the cell phone. In the idea of its creators at Qualcomm.
Some results are already visible (Fig 1 and 2): we passed from black-and-yellow displays to multi-colored-and-animated ones.
Once the potential of BREW and CDMA is fully exploited by manufacturers, the third generation of cell phones will be a reality like Internet.
This is what is going on from a technological point of view; in the following part we will take a look at the new marketing and advertising strategies pursued by carriers and manufacturers. As we have already seen, in the US cell phones are already sold with a contract, while in Europe we can consider the cell phone as object separate from the inner microchip provided by carriers. By this policy cell phones' manufacturers in America got more power than operators, so that very likely the policy in phones and contracts will remain (excerpt from the interview with Paul Burlingame).
Cell phone use was primarily for working purposes and as we can see from previous advertising campaigns, the targets were usually businessmen in their late 40's or older. It is interesting to see how companies have tried to reach new potential buyers, especially between teenagers and the so-called Generation X.
Manufacturers are trying to make the phone more appealing through changes in size, color, image, its look, its features, and apparel; its "aura" has been changed. Nokia is especially active in this field with phone covers. Colored plastic interchangeable cellular protections increase the interest of new categories of customers. Covers rely on the whole spectrum of colors, buttons turn into lights, tones reproduce the hit songs of the moment, sizes reduce, shapes become more appealing.
Other design changes can be seen in the adoption in many phones of the so-called "Fun-lights", similar to the light system in sneaker shoes, this flashy device is used to attire young people.
Both Motorola and Nokia, the two most important manufacturers in the world, are the main industries investing in advertising as well. A common strategy that they have used is product placement in movies.
The telephone industry has been one of the most active in this kind of product promotion.
Motorola started doing it a couple of years ago in "007- Die Another Day", Nokia has recently showed its new phone in "The Matrix Reloaded".
In each case the strategy is clear. Promoting mobile phones in action movies is the key factor to reach a wide audience of potential new young customers. At the same time the message given to the public is that the cell phone is no longer an object to use for business purposes only, but something "cool", a status symbol.
We have focused our research especially on Motorola since the company has been very active trying to bridge the market gap with its major competitor Nokia. On April 16, 1998, indeed, Motorola announced a $100 million-plus, multi-faceted global advertising campaign designed to generate unified brand awareness for the company's consumer products: cellular telephones, pagers and personal use two-way radios. This was the first time that the company engaged in such a big and multi-faced advertising campaign especially in a consumer branding ad that combines a variety of products from different Motorola businesses. (Source: www.motorola.com)
Wings is the creative result of a new global brand strategy based on consumer market research conducted by the firms. The campaign shows how Motorola products give consumers the freedom to "take their worlds with them" by helping them to stay in touch with others, whenever they choose. It capitalizes on Motorola's technology and reputation for originally-designed personal communications products. "Instant communication is essential to consumers' professional and social success," said Rick Darnaby, Motorola vice president and director of global brand management. "People want the benefits of personal communications products that give them Wings -- enabling them to be free from the confines of home or office, and giving them the ability to stay connected when and where they choose. "In developing our new ad campaign, we recognized consumer needs and created an inspirational image of how personal communications can impact people in today's mobile world. Motorola's new brand strategy will allow us to continue to communicate the value and power of our consumer-friendly products and how they can enhance everyday lives," Darnaby said.
Wings in Prime Time
The initial 60-second ad in this longterm branding effort breaks on Sunday, April 19 in the United States during prime time, using a roadblock of network and cable television ads. The Wings roadblock used three networks and nine major cable stations. The ad aired nationally on ABC, FOX and NBC as well as on A&E, BET, ESPN, MTV, MSNBC, TBS, TNT, USA, and VH1. Following its launch date, the Wings' 60-second ad was scheduled to appear on top-rated network shows such as Late Night with David Letterman, Just Shoot Me, Law & Order, Meet the Press, Party of Five, The Today Show, Touched By An Angel, Veronica's Closet and The X-Files.
The television advertising builds on the theme of personal autonomy and utilizes music from the legendary Grammy Award-winning Rolling Stones. The cross-generational Stones' music appeals to a diverse audience and plays over fast-moving images of people on the move whose communication, information and productivity needs are being met by a variety of Motorola products.
A series of 30-second, product-focused ads will follow the 60-second brand ad, also using prime time, sports and the early/late news fringe. These ads feature visuals of Motorola cellular telephones, pagers and personal use two-way radios.
Teaser print ads appeared in daily newspapers and out-of-home advertising in major metropolitan markets beginning April 12, a week prior to the campaign launch. National print ads following the launch build on the Wings theme, showing Motorola's logo and consumer products against a background of blue skies and clouds. Copy from the ad reads: "Wasn't it just yesterday that they said man would never fly? Today, Motorola gives you Wings. And sets you free. With some of the most powerful, most personal tools you can possess. With small cell phones and smart pagers and our fast two-way radios created for families. Today, Motorola gives you Wings." Print ads, designed to reach a variety of target markets, appeared in publications such as Fortune, People, Teen People, Time and The Wall Street Journal. The Wings branding campaign will also be reinforced through ads on billboards, trains and buses. The campaign will also involve promotions, packaging, point-of-sales efforts, collateral materials and co-operative advertising. The campaign was created by McCann-Erickson Worldwide, which won the global consolidated consumer assignment in 1997.
Similar efforts can be seen also from carriers and their promotion strategies in new commercials. Companies are focusing especially on younger customers and on the technological improvements.
As long as the carriers targeted only businessmen, the penetration of cell phones in society was pretty limited. The costs were high and no serious efforts to promote the product "mobile phone" among a wider sector of the population was been taken.
GET IT NOW!
This new strategies was launched by Verizon Wireless after the introduction of CDMA2000. BREW technology enables callers to download new applications for cell phones thanks to high Internet connection. The new technology is interesting from an advertiser's point of view for two reasons. The first is the possibility to make the cell phone an object more appealing with the option of downloading applications that have proved to be attractive for teenagers and younger people.
Ring tones, screen icons and animated text messages are popular especially between these strata of potential customers. As we have seen before, advertising strategies are already operating on this front. The second interesting aspect is that companies are trying to use the cell phone as a new way of spreading advertising. While people download applications with the BREW technology, commercials appear on the screen promoting products and services directly to every customer. There is a problem bound to the cell phone industry though, that make such initiatives still not efficient.
The problem is due to a political decision since regulations are not flexible under this aspect, so that explicit ads on cell phones cannot happen. This advertising technique as already started in Europe, it proved to especially appealing with younger people. The payoff of "GET IT NOW!" for its commercial "intrusion" on the cell phone is money directly added to the SMS bucket with every download. The financial aspect is particularly important to these individuals with little or no income.
TARGETING FAMILIES
"Get more!" says the beautiful Catherine Zeta-Jones in the famous campaign by T-Mobile, a subsidiary of the German Deutsche Telekom. Loaded with the know-how matured by Deutsche Telekom in the old continent, T-Mobile has been the first carrier to target families nationwide. It started its promotion in July 2002 and it has now almost 10 millions customers. We think that particularly important has been its T-Mobile FamilyTime plan, which gives parents, sons and daughters affordable tariffs to keep in touch with each other. We remember a similar plan promoted in Italy years ago and how it showed itself determinant to convince parents to purchase cell phones. T-Mobile knows that the human side of this technology always helps selling.
TARGETING TEENAGERS
Virgin did the same. Before starting to compete in the market, the company assured a partnership with MTV USA, the biggest teenager's icon. The aim of this partnership is to collect the rich segment of young people. Identifying itself with MTV and its "veejays", Virgin tries to redefine the cell phone as "cool", as a "must-have" for young people. SMS (Short Messaging Service) became the means to vote for videos on TRL (Total Request Live, the main show of MTV in the afternoon), to vote for favorite movies at the MTV movie awards and to check charts.
TARGETING SMALLER WALLETS
AT&T has recently invested a relatively big budget on recent NBA playoffs 2003. This represents a significant economic effort to gain visibility in a market that has been becoming increasingly competitive. Like T-Mobile and Virgin, AT&T has realized that targeting only businessmen at the end doesn't pay. Thus, it started to promote a service already present in other carriers but not actively utilized: the prepaid card.
Hugely common in Europe, South America and Asia, prepaid cards free customers from the constraints of expensive contracts and leave them free to decide how much and when to spend their money. They just purchase a given amount of time for their cell phones and then they can call until the credit is expired.
Some critics argue that prepaid cards are less remunerative than the old contracts and that, thanks to the new SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) cards, the loyalty of customers is at risk. Indeed, a SIM card can be easily removed and exchanged with another SIM belonging to another carrier.
For what we have seen in Europe, SIM cards simply allow people to purchase from more carriers at the same time, leaving them with the chance to change their plans according to their needs. One carrier is better for night calls, another has cheaper SMS, and so forth. Moreover, if it may be true that prepaid cards reduce carriers' revenues, but it also true that cell phones affordable to the majority of the population extend the total size of the market.
TARGETING LOVERS
A legend moving on the Internet, says that the team of Finnish Nokia developers, invented the SMS to help their shyness with girls. The impersonal appeal of a short message, the slightly romantic aura that surround them, it is said to be helpful in approaching the other sex. SMS has also be considered as the "love letters of the 21st century." Despite disappointing results so far, American carriers and manufactures keep on pushing towards SMSs and they do so trying to redefine the social "halo of romance" of this medium. The new MMSs too are object of this cultural process. More and more couples are shown on billboards and TV sending messages to each other. "If you can't say it, show it," last Nokia commercial says, after a young lover, embarrassed to show to his male friends how "soft" he could be, has sent to his girlfriend a picture with a sweet "I love u" written with ketchup and fries. Welcome to the century of the "mobile love."
(See commercials on Real Player)
ADVERTISING AND THE SMS
GartnerG2, a company specialized in mobile phone surveys, found out last November that SMS could work to address ads in a better way the e-mails do. The reason seems to be the number of cell phones actually used in Europe, double to the number of PCs. Now 41% of European adults use SMS, over the 30% use e-mail. But it could also lay in the more personal relationship people have with their cell phones. While a PC usually very big and uncomfortable to carry around, cell phones are small and light.
Along with the Europeans, American advertising companies aim to improve SMS usage in the US through the same techniques. "Education clearly is the key," said Verizon Wireless spokesman Jeffrey Nelson. "We're always doing that in free media around minor and major holidays and it's also in our paid advertising." There has been about a 400 to 500 percent increase in message volume from 2001 to 2002. To keep those trends going strong, the carriers are in the midst of a massive promotional effort to get the U.S. using SMS. (Source: interview with Christopher Saunders, www.InstantMessanginPlanet.com)
Fox Broadcasting, the network airing the TV series "American Idol 2," reprising the "Star Search"-meets-"Survivor", estimates some 40 million Americans watched when it ran during the summer. For the second year in a row, AT&T Wireless has signed on as one of the show's lead sponsors, and again will be providing SMS-based voting capabilities -- enabling viewers to vote for their favorite contestants. AT&T Wireless also said its sponsorship will include a wider, "Idol"-related marketing campaign, including a sweepstakes, downloadable show content and mobile phone applications. Marketing efforts for the project are being overseen by U.K. wireless marketing shop Aerodeon.
The move, of course, aims to encourage AT&T subscribers in learning about "new and fun ways of interacting with their favorite TV show," said Andre Dahan, president of AT&T Wireless Mobile Multimedia Services (Source: www.attws.com) Moving beyond brand and product placement and creating active participation in the show's outcome is the strategy.
AT&T Wireless has been spending million more in ads during the Super Bowl XXXVII. The mobile giant will promote its wireless services in three in-game spots, and three to five pre- and post-game ads -- in addition to sponsorship of the game's halftime show. Cost for the ads and the sponsorship is expected to be more than $11 million. Similarly to its work on "Idol," AT&T Wireless' text messaging link into the Super Bowl will be a promotion that encourages viewers to vote on a Super Bowl-related question using SMS. The results of the vote will be televised later in the game.
Verizon Wireless has been promoting text messaging through a variety of channels all principally tied into its two-year deal with New Line Cinema's "Lord of the Rings" franchise. As part of the agreement -- terms of which were not disclosed, but likely ring up into the millions of dollars -- the company is running a text-based trivia contest and other games. To persuade users to participate, the company is offering prizes including "Rings" memorabilia, next-generation mobile phones, and a trip to New Zealand. Verizon Wireless also is encouraged users to sign up for one of several "Rings"-based wireless communities, created in connection with technology vendor UPOC. The firms are urging subscribers and "Rings" fans to "Extend the Fellowship with 2-Way Text Messaging!" by joining various SMS chat groups, such as "LOTR Lore" and "Elven Chat." "We're being very aggressive in text messaging," Nelson said. "Largely, what we're doing is educating our own customers -- and frankly, all wireless users -- about text messaging, what it is and how to use it."
CONCLUSION
Through our research we noticed that great efforts have been made both from telephone carriers and manufacturers to penetrate the American market more deeply.
As we have seen, political problems and competition were the cause of the broad gap in mobile phone use and diffusion between United States and Europe. The United States has the potential to be the world leader in cell phone technology and communication networks due to its extensive monetary resources and investments, but changes in policy and network shortcomings are required to reach European standards. Cell phone companies have put large amounts of advertising money into changing the image of the cell phone and make it a part of mainstream society. Recently, a great variety of new societal groups have been targeted as potential cell-phone users, as opposed to just the business sector in past decades. Particular efforts are made to reach teenagers, young adults, and women. Some critics predicted a slow in cell phone sales due to competing WIFI and PC deals, but the general trend of increasing use of technology in society has allowed all of these services to flourish. Thus, U.S. carriers and manufacturers have worked to evolve their products and services to best serve the needs of a new, segmented market.
IMT-2000: International Mobile Telecommunications 2000 - The goal of IMT-2000 is to provide a global project for new communication technologies.
New services of 3G technology through ground and satellite networks, both mobile and normal.
3G: Stands for Third Generation, or the new broadband mobile communication systems and services.
UMTS: Universal Mobile Telecommunications System - new mobile third generation system, developed by the world's biggest operators for the IMT-2000 project, based on the GSM architecture
PDC: Personal Digital Cellular - the 2nd generation standard system for mobile digital phones, used in Japan.
GSM: Originally the it stand for Groupe Speciale Mobile, later changed into the global System for mobile Communications, an international standard for mobile digital phone.
WAP: Wireless Application Protocol - it's the standard application for global communication between mobile phones and Internet.
WAP technology allows GSM or GPRS users to access to Internet sites predisposed to be visualized on cellular phones screens. WAP was first offered progressively in different versions to improve aspects and functionality. Version 1.0 was first used in 1998 introducing WML script and Protocol Stack, the base characteristics of WAP.
Many operators preferred to wait for the second version 1.1 introduced in 1999 with the first commercial version. Version 2.0, still not officially released, is the real WAP revolution, introducing cHTML and HTML codes that permit to visualize full colored Internet sites.
GPRS: General Packet Radio Service - Technology that improves data transmission of mobile digital network. GPRS technology is much faster than a normal GSM connection, reaching theoretically 171.200 kbps. GPRS phones are always connected to the net, so prices are different from a normal system because GPRS connection is based on the amount of data used.
TRIAL BAND: Mobile digital terminals operating differently in three different radio frequencies. In GSM i.e. you have 900, 1800 and 1900mhz frequencies.
CDMA: Code Division Multiple Access. A digital mobile system developed by Qualcomm, it's an evolution of CDMAOne.
CDMA 2000: Evolution of CDMAOne system for 3G, developed in the IMT-2000 project.
Wideband CDMA - Radio 3G interface developed by NTT DoCoMo that will be used in Japan and Europe. It has been optimized to use all applications that need a broader band like videos, pictures and Internet.
SMS: Short Messaging Service.
MMS: Multimedia Messaging Service sent via cell phones that allow to see pictures, short animations and to listen audio files.