Texting

March 19, 2002

U.S. not getting wireless message

If you use your mobile phone to send and receive text messages, browse the Web (or even a stripped-down derivative) or do just about anything else that involves data -- not voice -- communications, you're a rare bird in North America.

I wonder why. Actually, I don't. I've used SMS on my phone recently (Robin [no link] and I were giving it a try-- between Voicestream and AT&T, nonetheless) I've also messaged over AIM with Farhad [no web page], who was connected to AIM through his Sprint phone. The biggest problem is with actually writing messages. Typing out words on a keypad designed to type numbers quickly is incredibly slow and a major PitA. (Yes, I know millions of people in Europe and Japan do this) but I don't have the patience to learn. Which is a shame, because texting is rather cool and useful. I don't understand why cell phone makers are so attached to the keypad...