The question I would like to raise, is why should Australia have to wait until the American public grows tired of their "average coverage and options for their communications", before we see better options than we have now? If Telstra has such a world beating platform in Next G, then it would be exporting it to new markets. If its product were so superior, why doesn't telstra invest 6 or 7 billion to set up a nation wide Next G network there, and capture United States market share in mobile communications. Earning Australia valuable income, boosting the Telstra share price, helping balance of payments and creating jobs in the United States. Sol was recently impored to come back to the United States to fix that countrys wireless broadband woes. Whats stopping Telstra from going there and building the network if Next G is so good?

careful, this is where our three Amigo's hail from. They worked to get the USA to this state.

"about how technology has bypassed the US." "the US did give the world the iPhone, but that is really the end of it as far as I can see" This comparison is like comparing painting a dog house to that of painting a mansion. The mansion needs a bit more paint in order to cover it. Also keep in mind AT&T has a lot more competition and must keep its rates low as well as the fact it has over 90 competetors within the US, many of which specialize in cheap plans (Jitterbug) with rollover minutes or broader Rural coverage (Verison). AT&T was a part of Bell Telephone. The telephone system had a near-monopoly on the U.S. telephone market until its divestiture in 1984. Besides a country of 305 million cannot be compared to that of one containing 21.4 million people. in fact the population of New York state equates to 19.3 million, a disparity of just 2.1 million people to that of Australia. "The US handset range still does not match that in Australia. Nor do the services available." I hope quite sincerely that you are joking about this one, I was in the US in June of this year and was astonished by the range of phones I could buy, especally blackberries. (including the Iphone that has been on the market since Late June 08). I would agree with the services, but we've just finished building a new network, so it should be better than their old one! The US started the explosion of technology in the last half of the 20th century, the US military invented the internet (Starting as ARPANET around 1969 as a Work In Progress) Steve Jobs and Bill Gates started the Home computer revolution. The US has had the "pause and rewind live TV" Technology that FOXTEL calls "new technology" since 2001, (I know because I had it) It's called TiVo, I'm still waiting for the equivelent to come here to Australia as My Star, but its better than normal cable TV but just doesn't cut it.........yet.........but I have faith By attacking another countries technology you are only putting forth how "we are so good because they are so bad" The technology should speak for itself.... and the strive to make it better irregardless of what the "other" guy is doing. One of the main reasons I moved here is to get away from that "we're better than everyone else" attitute many Americans have. "One day the American public will grow tired of average coverage and options for their communications. The sooner the better.......... Imagine the options we may see available in Australia once this happens." Hmmmm..... kind of opposite of everything else you said, why do we need to wait on Americans for "new options"??

Scott, thanks for your comments. A couple of things need to be said. Firstly, I have not had the advantage of living long term in the US, but have over the past 10 years travelled there at least once and on occassions up to three times a year - so my impressions are as a "heavy" user from Australia expecting to get at least the same level of service coverage in the the densly populated US as I get in around Australia. Secondly, over the past three years the amount of new and innovative handsets available in the US is far less than in Australia. You need to visit the Samsung or Nokia concept stores to see product that is either "coming soon" or "not for sale in the US". (There is a great Samsung store in Manhattan in the Time-Warner building). Thirdly, the AT&T comparison was used as they are the largest network, and are the one network that introduced an 850mHz network that is supposed to up to the standard of our Next G network. Reality is - our Next G network is currently superior - both in availability and coverage. Again I stress my comments are those of a user - if I cannot hold a call walking down the street, or in the subway, or a tunnel on the freeway, I miss the advantages of the Next G network. Simple. Finally, if the US had pushed technology such as video calls, we would have seen a lot of different handsets available in Australia from the introduction of Next G - rather than waiting for manufacturers to achieve the volumes internationally to build a handset with two cameras.

Sorry meant to say..... I'm still waiting for the equivelent to come here to Australia, as for My Star it's close but not close enough to suit me, but its better than normal cable TV, but still it just doesn't cut it.........yet.........

". . . a lot of States have recently outlawed driving and using a cell phone at the same time. Sending a text message whist driving has not yet caught the eyes of the officials as yet . . . " Friends from Canada could not understand why we text. They said call charges at home were so low that if you wanted some one you just rang them. Perhaps this is the same in the US - it's just not an issue. As to coverage - Boyne Valley, less than an hour out of Gladstone, no mobiles, no broadband.

Michael Lewis Sir Please refer to my original post and address the issues of population vs area...... greater competition...... new small network Telstra vs old enormous network AT&T........... our continued relience on hand me down technology from the states as stated at the end of your article.......................... The US is behind us in technology ,,,,,but,,,,,, If the US wasn't our technology would be better.............you keep contrdicting yourself, .........This is a classic straw man argument ........ """the US did give the world the iPhone, but that is really the end of it as far as I can see"""........... As far as what the USA has given us here is a short list.............. How about the Telephone, Cable television, the Internet, The first airplane, GPS, Refrigerator,Passenger lift,Fountain pen, Radio, Air conditioner, Photocopier, Mass production. Need I go on?????????? the IPHONE pales in comparison................................. as well as Marcus Aurelius's comments on Telstra in America should be addressed..............I don't intend on being offensive but reposting your original comment twice is not a rebuttal.........It's just cut and paste.

Hi, Could I make a comment? I have not much experiences bout world class market network services and trades. However I have a little simple thing that could be giving you a little bit of thought. I am a young single busy Mom, working full time and study (both management and network systems) as well as following on world economy (learning). I am emigrated from Asian country and constructing our Next G network…. Following from Michael’s greeting, why America tech has bypassed? A simple instance I would like to bring it up from my every day life. My kid likes cakes and I like to make it for her. Once I make it many times, more cake I make that s better cakes I do, anyway there are too much for 2 of us finish them all… Hmmm…If my kid likes, my neighbours might like my cake as well. I should bring a nice best piece of cake to neighbours to try. Once my neighbours like it, I have some more idea…others in this town maybe like it too. We sell them in our front house and we can sell them all… This could be great idea if I can sell them for more money in the town but I have no shops. I have not much money to lease a shop front and this is not worth enough to invest on some little pieces of cake at the moment I can do. I should go to cake shops or get some friends who would like to make a bakery shop and I make a cake for her as well as some money loan to her with great interest rate :) I found some shops already as well as my friend would like to do an investment on bakery shop too… I go back home make lot of nice piece of cakes and bring best pieces to sell. How bout my kids? I have some worst pieces left for her but anyway…they still test nice as same as nice pieces of cake I bring to sell…. Once I have lot of money…I can take my kid to where else unfamiliar than my cakes I make at home… As well as we have enough money to do a factory with unnecessary to have our own shops. Let s go to Starbuck and Mc Donald my dear kid! :) From my little idea and put the point of the US world iPhone and why US’s teach has bypassed instead of best pieces of Cake or even bakery shop front, this could maybe give the topic of discussion in other differ view....that American maybe was putting an idea to invest on the world iPhone even before US$ gone down.... I would not comment any more than this coz I could maybe make it wrong….

Michael Lewis,........Take note in New York city you will probably NEVER see Mobile phone coverage in Tunnels or Subways because of potential terrorist based IED's with mobile phones used as remote detonation devices, this applies especially to areas with congested egress potential, ie small points of exit in relation to space.

Dear me, let's not miss the point. 305 million people that rely on the Market economy to survive and they have all that competition and yet still don't have the network facility that Telstra has built. Maybe the Yanks don't care too much about being able to use their mobile phones anywhere. The beauty of Michael's article is that it opens up discussion about how good Telstra really is compared to the so called U.S. of A.. We too often rate ourselves against the British and U.S.A. economic model yet our main myopic media seems to concentrate on the negatives never the positives. We are good and are able to succeed where others flounder. Question: if we had as much competition in Australia, in proportion to population, would we be as this far in front - mobile wise - forget about B/Band because that discussion has been going on since 1992-1995. Hopefully the currrent Government will move on as indicated.