> Cell phones were widespread in Europe before they become so in the US. Are you using a small number of Western European nations as a proxy for all of Europe?

> Cell phones were widespread in Europe before they become so in the US. Are you using a small number of Western European nations as a proxy for all of Europe? The US invented the mobile phone and deployed it very early on. 2/3 of Europe was too poor to afford mobile phones until the past 10-15 years. Eastern Europe only started getting widespread mobile phones with the rise of cheaper, high-function smartphones in the past five to seven years. The same is true in Russia. The US matched most of Western Europe on 2G deployment, primarily lagging Germany, France and the UK. The US was far ahead of Europe on 4G deployment [1][2][3][4], and it's leading Europe on 5G deployment as well [5]. Western Europe's stumbles after 2G are why European tech companies have failed miserably to compete in mobile and the US de facto conquered that market in the West. It's why Apple today is a $2 trillion company (equal to 10 SAPs) and the old Nokia got killed off. Western Europe entirely squandered their brief 2G lead over the US. [1] 2014 "Europe Struggles to Catch Up With U.S. on 4G Investment" - https://www.wsj.com/articles/europe-struggles-to-catch-up-with-u-s-on-4g-investment-1392996631 https://www.wsj.com/articles/europe-struggles-to-catch-up-wi... [2] 2013 "Europe lagging in 4G deployment" - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/mobile-phones/10288585/Europe-lagging-in-4G-deployment.html https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/mobile-phones/1028858... [3] 2011 "Europe slow to adopt 4G mobile" - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-telecoms/europe-slow-to-adopt-4g-mobile-sector-execs-idUSTRE78Q60W20110928 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-telecoms/europe-slow-to-a... [4] 2013 "Europe Is Losing the 4G Race" - https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324412604578515222989449746 https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324412604578515... [5] "The real reason Europe is falling behind on 5G" ... "Over the last decade there has been considerable public support to promote 5G in Europe. But in actual rollouts, Europe is fast falling behind lead markets in North America, North East Asia and Australia." https://www.ericsson.com/en/blog/2019/12/borje-ekholm-5g-europe-falling-behind https://www.ericsson.com/en/blog/2019/12/borje-ekholm-5g-eur... [5a] https://www.ericsson.com/en/blog/2019/9/can-europe-compete-in-5g-not-without-addressing-barriers-in-our-way https://www.ericsson.com/en/blog/2019/9/can-europe-compete-i...