] Iraq needs a mobile-phone service. According to the
] U.N.'s International Telecommunication Union's 2001
] survey, Iraq, North Korea and Afghanistan were the last
] three major countries without a major mobile
] infrastructure.
]
] The current reconstruction plan involves using U.S. funds
] to install a European-based wireless technology known as
] GSM (define) for a new Iraqi cell phone system. Issa's
] bill (HR 1441) would give preference to American
] companies, including QUALCOMM.
]
] "If European GSM technology is deployed in Iraq, much of
] the equipment used to build the cell phone system would
] be manufactured in France, Germany, and elsewhere in
] western and northern Europe. Furthermore, royalties paid
] on the technology would flow to French and European
] sources, not U.S. patent holders," Issa said in his
] letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and USAID
] Administrator, Ambassador Wendy Chamberlain.

US business interests over plain common sense, and what is best for the Iraqi people... every surrounding nation uses GSM, but Iraq should be CDMA, because American companies will get the loot.

Great thinking.

CDMA Pushed on Postwar Iraq