Operators in other countries plan similar services, meaning that customers will soon enjoy genuine broadband data access. Unless, that is, they are located in the United States. Everyone knows that the United States is hardly a world leader in mobile technology, but visitors are frequently shocked by just how far behind it is. Most U.S. users still rely on analog cellular, considered obsolete in all other rich countries. More than half of the nation's surface area isn't covered at all.
People switch their phones off because they're charged to receive calls.
And, most alarmingly, the FCC seems willing to let the country fall even further back. From a distance, the FCC appears to have the same modus operandi as other countries' regulators. But no technological advance can repeal Shannon's Law, and there simply won't be enough bandwidth to support anything like Foma. If cell phones become as popular in the United States as in Europe, voice traffic will swallow all of this extra 2G spectrum and leave none for 3G data. The FCC does have a small fragment of spectrum earmarked for 3G, but it's only enough to support one monopoly operator.