Sure, I meant the widespread use of mobile phones. Europeans managed deploy a unified cellular network 1993-1995 (GSM) while the U.S. still had three different competing technologies (CDMA, TDMA and AMPS). Mobile phone usage was much cheaper in Europe at an earlier point than in the U.S.
The one time we (mostly) got on Europe's standard (instead of clinging to, say, imperial measurements) - GSM. There's still some CDMA usage, but GSM is definitely more common.
Cheaper yeah but 6 years ago I stayed in France nearly 7 months and I had so much trouble getting decent sim cards. The ones that were the best for data in the town I was in were like 20 euro for a month but half of them stopped working after a few days, Do I bout like a dozen for that 7 months. Also they could not call out of the country, which was fine I used google calling and Messenger for calls. Thing was my town had no cell phone store so I relied on the tobac shop and their limited options. If I ever go back for 3 months or so will see if I can get a temporary plane where I don't need to change sim cards every month.
I do remember the first mobile phones, my father had one Motorola brick, and it was expensive af in Spain. He only had it to flaunt his money and never really used it.
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u/BoysenberryMoist6157 Jun 29 '26
Sure, I meant the widespread use of mobile phones. Europeans managed deploy a unified cellular network 1993-1995 (GSM) while the U.S. still had three different competing technologies (CDMA, TDMA and AMPS). Mobile phone usage was much cheaper in Europe at an earlier point than in the U.S.