These good gentlemen are happily chatting away on their cells in Nepal.
by daske
Nice. I'm happy for them.
Everyone else on the planet is able to watch full length feature films, check the latest news, pay for their groceries, text with their children and play world of warcraft on their phone.
Here in the nest of global innovation: California USA, I lose cell reception on my drive home in Marin County, California - *EVERY SINGLE* time.
Sprint's generated something like three quarters of a billion dollars in EBITDA last quarter. You'd think they could find a few bucks to put a cell tower in a major commute area like 101 North out of San Francisco around Sausalito? After all, there are only 38 million crossings per year.
Now there's something that I can talk about. Sometimes all the money in the world won't help. There is the NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) syndrome to deal with, and I believe Marin is the epicenter of the NIMBY cult.
An easy way to find out if it's engineering apathy, lack of funding or something else is to look at the other providers. If Cingular, T-Mobile and Verizon all carry calls through the area, then Sprint has a resolvable issue. However, if everyone has the same problem - the cause is likely the fine residents of that particular area who would like to have service but will not allow the providers to "provide" it.
Posted by: Mike | December 17, 2006 at 12:22 PM