The Americans are at it again.
Letters from the U.S. Secretary of State to the European Commission are demanding the commission put pressure on ETSI to prioritize development of CDMA standards for Europe.
The demands have, quite rightly, been robustly rebuffed.
Never mind that the European Commission has no powers to determine ETSI’s work schedule. Never mind that the U.S. approach does not have the support of the FCC. The letters just continue the bullying tactics of threatening trade sanctions in order to promote the interests of one sector of the U.S. manufacturing community.
Such bullying tactics from the Americans are becoming boring. They seem to be a persistent feature within the telecommunications arena. Throwing the satellite issue into the WTO negotiations at the 11th hour was a pure protectionist measure emanating from the so-called land of free enterprise. Unilateral actions over Internet domain-name governance and accounting-rate settlements just illustrate the contempt in which the United Nations is held by certain departments of the U.S. government.
But it is in the mobile arena where pressuring and posturing from the U.S. government presents the most unedifying spectacle. Preaching to the rest of the world from a position of failure is insensitive at best, arrogant at worst.
Mobile communications in the United States can hardly be rated as an unqualified success. The multiple mistakes made during the issuing of analog cellular licenses in the States have been well documented. The full implications of the PCS license auction fiasco have still to be realized. The fact that U.S. cellular services lag far behind the rest of the world in coverage, roaming capabilities, data functionality and value for money is conveniently ignored. The absence of calling party pays is not far short of scandalous.
But the fact that the U.S. manufacturing community lost out to the rest of the world in digital cellular cannot be ignored. Not by the U.S. government at least.
Having honed the Not Invented Here syndrome to a fine art, the United States seems determined to prevent the sins of the second generation from being passed down to the third. Unilateral actions on standardization and spectrum allocations coupled with threats of trade sanctions seem to be the chosen tools.
Not a pretty sight. I suspect I am not alone in objecting to the apparent inability of the United States to contribute rationally and constructively to global issues within telecommunications. Spoiling tactics on third-generation issues seem more like deliberate attempts at sabotage than unconscious consequences of parochialism.
But in the long term, it probably makes little difference. Most forecasters agree the economic powerhouses of the future will be centered in Asia and Latin America. That’s where the action lies for third-generation cellular. Could be a blessing in disguise for the U.S. cellular scene. A chance to catch up with the rest of the world.
