> How the US - just a single country (its size doesn't matter) - managed to end up with multiple competing standards continues to make my mind boggle. I'm gues

> How the US - just a single country (its size doesn't matter) - managed to end up with multiple competing standards continues to make my mind boggle. I'm guessing it had to do with Qualcomm being a US company and having the advantage for obtaining contracts and influence from politicians and other bureaucrats at the time CDMA and GSM were being standardized and developed. CDMA originated with Qualcomm and GSM was mostly developed by companies outside of the US (I think starting in Finland).