Silly things amuse me, but global is the future.
I’ve been a Sprint PCS customer for 7 years, ever since I heard Emmanuel Goldstein on Off The Hook talk about this new “digital” cellphone tech. Their service has always been outstanding, clear and reliable. Their customer service has always been good to me, but I admit I have heard some horror stories from friends about botched bills, messed up service, lost replacement phones, etc. Of course, their service is based on the CDMA technology, which is an all-digital cellular telephone system that unfortunately is used… in the United States… and not really anywhere else. There are a few carriers in Canada, but service is spotty at best, and roaming charges are just scary. Japan uses a CDMA standard, but it is not compatible with the US standard.
Today I finally cancelled my account with Sprint, as I have switched over to T-Mobile. The only real reason is because T-Mobile uses GSM. GSM is the Global Standard for Mobile communications, most countries these days use GSM, according to the GSMA, the association that promotes GSM, over 212 countries and 2 billion people use GSM phones. It is probably most famous in the US for coming up with SMS, the Short Message Service that most people these days know as ‘txting’. But the big draw for me is that I can take my GSM Blackberry nearly anywhere in the world and at the very least be able to make voice calls and send and receive SMS messages. This is literally as easy as switching out the little SIM card from the back of my phone. I already have a O2 SIM, which is good for service in the UK and most amusingly a UK phone number.
I guess I’m most excited about finally getting to travel. I really really hope I can make this a regular thing. This is such a wide wonderful world, it would be such a shame to die without seeing any of it. If I can manage to visit the UK in 2008, I’d like to see Ireland in 2009. It would be rocking to get to see Japan, but that is a level of culture shock that might just drive me insane!
Tags: technology
[...] said, around 3 years ago I left Sprint (after 7 years) and went over to the magenta side. I started traveling internationally and wanted a GSM phone and [...]