PANELISTS ASK WHY U.S. WIRELESS MARKET ISN'T BETTER

摘要

Government intervention is a potential answer and not an impediment to the U.S. effort to create a more vibrantnwireless market with faster speeds, Sascha Meinrath, director of the New America Foundation's Open TechnologynInitiative, said on a Friday panel sponsored by his group and Slate magazine. The event was called "Why YournCellphone is So Terrible." "In my mind we can look to what works best in other places around the globe and realize thatnthey have much better, more thriving markets than we have in the United States for cellular coverage," Meinrath said:n"They have lower prices, they have faster speeds." Consumers have fared better in countries where there's an "activeninterplay" between government mandates and the free market, he said. The government should require carriers tonunbundle services, Meinrath said. "It pains me that I can buy a data-only plan for this laptop, but I can't buy a data-onlynplan in the form factor of my cellphone," he said. "It makes no sense. If they're going to sell me a data-only plan for $30na month [for my laptop], why do I have to buy a voice plan and a text plan and a data plan for my cellphone?"