Doing the walkie-talkie

摘要

Few people have anything good to say about America's fragmented mobile-te.-lecoms industry. Coverage is, by European standards, atrocious, despite boasts from operators about the quality and reach of their networks. Customers have to contend with complicated roaming arrangements, baffling billing terms, and bulky handsets. Text-messaging is still a rarity. But in one area, America leads the world. In 1996 the country's fifth-largest carrier, Nextel, launched an obscure network technology, called iDEM, made by Motorola. It has a unique feature: a "walkie-talkie" mode that allows Nextel subscribers to talk to each other instantly merely by holding down a special button and speaking into the phone.