According to a survey commissioned by the Consumers Union, the guys who publish the widely read Consumer Reports, 73% of 981 people interviewed are in favor of the United States government passing a law that would require every new mobile phone sold to be compatible with every wireless network in America. Now you and I know about the differences between CDMA and GSM, the former powering Verizon Wireless and Sprint, the latter powering all of Europe, Asia, as well as T-Mobile and AT&T back home, but do regular people understand the technical details or should they not even care? If we look just at smartphone owners, the number of people supporting government legislation for devices supporting both technologies jumps to 81%! An astounding 96% of everyone, dumbphone and smartphone owners, say they’d like to keep their existing handset when switching operators, and 88% say their device should be able to support any operator in the nation.
We’ve said it time and time again that the American wireless market needs to become more like it is abroad, meaning people buy their devices separately from their operator. Sure, the huge up front fee for the latest smartphone on the market may sting a few people, but a lower wireless bill because operators don’t have to deal with inventory or spend an untold sum of money to tweak devices in order to “enhance the end user experience” can actually help lots of Americans. Is it going to happen any time soon? We sincerely doubt it. Google tried to change things with the Nexus family of products, but they quickly gave up after realizing that figuring out that offering customer service is a costly proposition.
Back to the survey: Will dual mode CDMA and GSM devices become the norm? Hardly. They add cost, weight, and most people honestly don’t even bother switching their operator. Nice pipe dream though.