Programming & Design

It is November as I am writing this. That means it is time for the Embedded Europe Conference. It also means that it is the time of year when it is cold and rainy over most of Europe, but I suppose that also cuts down on the tourists. Sometimes you have to look hard for the silver lining, but it's usually there somewhere.

I have several secondary missions on my trip this year. There are customers and potential partners to visit, and I am also going to visit the Electronica 2000 show in Munich, but those are just work things. I also have a more serious mission on my agenda. No, I am not talking about Oktoberfest.

That ended a few weeks ago.

Cellular phone lore

My mission is to find out the truth behind the assumption that Europe is two years ahead of the US in cellular phone technology. This is one of those things that has become a catchphrase in the popular press. I have been reading it in so many articles and reports lately that it has become an accepted piece of lore, one that they don't even bother attributing to a source. Maybe I'm just being contrary again, but whenever I see one of these assumptions I am usually driven to determine the truth behind it.

The veracity of this particular piece of lore holds some importance to US telecommunication companies and customers. It has acted as a Sputnik of sorts, spurring the competitive pride of American tech companies to catch up with and lead the world in anything involving technology.

In particular, the image of a European population that routinely accesses the Internet via cell phones to buy soda from vending machines and that receives ads targeted to the fact that they are standing in front of a particular store has driven software developers here in the states to study up on technology like the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) to avoid falling even further behind.

United we stand

The story is that Europe had the foresight and organization to get behind a common standard for cellular access, instead of the mishmash of four separate protocols that the US has to deal with. I can certainly sympathize with the move towards one standard, since I have tried most of the standards and found the coverage of each left a lot to be desired. There is a certain attractiveness to the thought of a benevolent monopoly that would simplify telephone access via cellular phones. If that could happen around the world it would be a major plus, since there is nothing more disconcerting than being confronted by a phone system in a foreign country.

I still remember trying to make a call in Belgium a decade or so ago, when it was explained to me that I was dialing the correct digits but that I had to dial them slower to allow the phone system to keep up. They told me I had to be nicer to the phone system there than I was used to in the US.

Not so simple solution

The ideal situation would be to be able to take a little piece of that America with me in the form of a phone that would just work wherever I might take it. This is the promise of the so-called World phones, devices that handle multiple formats and access capabilities. I was going to arrange for my primary cellular phone service supplier, but by the time I got hold of someone that knew what I was talking about they referred me to another supplier that handled this specialty item.

A simpler alternative presented itself in the form of a secondary supplier that would provide a phone with a worldwide service option. The service manual describes a busy jet-setter nimbly closing business deals in Canada or throughout Europe using this service. I bought the claim.

As of this writing, reality has asserted itself. The phone could find no service in Munich or other cities in Germany with which it could get along. Here in Maastricht it did find a carrier to its liking, finally giving me a green light. Unfortunately, every attempted call gives me the message "Please try again later" and a busy signal. This includes one jet-lagged attempt I made at 2:30 in the morning. Needless to say, I am not impressed with the service so far.

Reality check

But this does provide a data point of US service versus European service. It is commonly accepted (and widely quoted) that any European cellular phone can be used throughout Europe. Again, this is the advantage of the common GSM standard.

It turns out that reality is a little more complicated than that. One of the things my phone can tell me is what phone systems are present in the area. It can't talk to them, but it knows that they are there. The problem is not in the technical standard, but instead in the billing arrangements between the patchwork of phone carriers. I could make the call if they could figure out how to bill me for it.

This is exactly the problem that satellite systems like Iridium were supposed to solve. The easiest way to get a uniform billing structure is to fly above all of the local services and have a single global telephone company. This is certainly easier from the political point of view, but it turned out that the technical problems of delivering that service economically and in a form that people could actually use stopped the solution from becoming viable.

Realistically, there is no technical reason that such a system should be necessary. The protocols are defined for validation of billing between cellular systems. It's easy for us as engineers to deride the business concerns that prevent that from happening. After all, it boils down to how much money goes into which pot. Between the US and Europe we can't even decide whether the caller or called should be billed for the airtime of a cellular call. I cannot even imagine the discussions that must be taking place between small cellular carriers based on that lack of fundamental common ground.

Cellular everywhere you look

Apart from the problems that visitors might have, there is still the question of penetration of cellular phone usage (especially for data applications) within the local population. Again, we have been given the impression that this is one of the major differences between the cellular elite of Europe and we unwashed savages of the New World.

The local television commercials certainly bear up this image. Ericsson, Nokia, and Siemens have filled the airwaves with images of people merrily talking, pointing, and clicking with cutting-edge cellular phones. There are also a number of outlets locally that have an impressive array of WAP-enabled phones, something that is certainly lacking back in the States.

I have long-since learned not to trust these kinds of indicators, though. The typical man-on-the-street often shows quite different indications of reality than what they are supposed to be doing. This should be obvious to us, given that we know that all lifeguards do not look like those on Baywatch and that the streets of US cities are not filled with hourly running gun battles and car chases. The reality of television sometimes has little to do with what is really happening.

It appears to be just that way with cellular usage here in Europe as well. The phones are certainly available, but I see very few people using them on the street. This is unusual, since out of any US crowd there will typically be at least a few people merrily talking to people that aren't there. Factor out the ones with tinfoil on their heads and you will still get a reasonable percentage of the population. Certainly I have seen large percentages of any crowd in the Far East chewing up airtime. What is happening here in Europe? Is it all a hoax?

Moving slowly

I suspect the reality is that continental Europe is very different from Scandinavia, an area that purportedly does have the highest cell phone penetration in the world. I will be able to verify that later this week, when I visit Helsinki. What I see here in continental Europe is a culture that changes very slowly. I know that most people here have cell phones, but they certainly are not as evident as they are elsewhere. I saw a sign on a bus that forbade the use of cell phones while riding. I did hear one ring in a restaurant, and the owner looked horribly embarrassed as he shut it off rather than ignore his dinner companion and answer it. Cellular phones are certainly present here, but they have apparently not been allowed to dominate the lives of the owners.

Maybe they are a couple of years ahead of us after all.

About the Author

Larry Mittag is vice president and chief technologist for Stellcom, Inc., a San Diego-based engineering services company that specializes in wireless devices and applications. He can be reached at lmittag@stellcom.com.

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