Why I hate the US wireless telecom industry...

Let see, where to begin? How about the one-size-fits-all mentality. Then there's the "you don't want that new phone" attitude. Or the fact that they control distribution of phones so that if you want a particular new, tech-ladden phone you have to go and switch away from their service. If only they'd realise that if that left the distribution to someone else, techno geeks like me would upgrade our phones a lot more often than we can usually do now under the current scheme.

If I had the ability to buy a new phone anytime I want, I would only probably switch phones and stay with the same provider. OK, I hear all you Americans say that you can buy a new phone anytime you want. BUT, you can't! When was the last time you actually paid for a new phone for what it actually costs. And, that you can use with any service, not with just Cingular or T-Mobile. Or you weren't required to sign another 1 or 2 year contract. So I see you've all run into this pesky situation before. Not to mention the locking of cell phones. A carrier locks "your" new phone into their service only, making it impossible for you to use it with any other providers. Unless of course you have it unlocked (but that's another discussion).

Again, another situation of where you don't realise what you don't have until you move away from that former system. How I wish it were true that you can go into any cellular shop, buy the latest Nokia, SonyEricsson or Motorola, slip in your simcard and be on your merry way. So why can't US consumers have it this way? Probably, because long before anyone can remember, some phone manufacturing executives somewhere made some deal with some wireless communications executives and now we're stuck with this plan.

However, there is hope. I think cell phones and service providers, are slowly trying to untangle themselves. Recently I saw a phone, for sale at a Sony store in San Francisco, that was independent of any service carrier. Let's hope more phone manufacturers follow suit.