While protocols battle in the U.S., the war's over in the rest of the world. The Federal Communication Commission's decision to allow multiple wireless standards to duke it out in the U.S. market has yet to result in a clear winner. Mobile providers have established an array of standards defining the way calls and data are transmitted. But unfortunately for these companies and their customers, wireless protocols are often incompatible and limited to a small range of frequencies. A mobile phone that works in San Francisco may not work in Las Vegas.
Mobile protocols determine how a phone structures a message and which radio frequencies are usable.
In the United States, several incompatible wireless standards compete, and each of these protocols is limited to a particular set of radio frequencies. Access to these frequencies, in turn, is controlled by the FCC, which auctions usage on a piecemeal basis. This means that it's difficult for any one company to provide uniform mobile-phone coverage throughout the United States. The Code Division Multiple Access digital protocol has a slight lead in the U.S. Analog phones, which do not use digital technology and are uniformly expected by industry analysts to become obsolete within the next few years, still account for more than one-third of the American market. Europe and parts of Asia, the most established wireless markets, have approached mobile protocols differently.