The trouble with making a good call in the market is that what seems like a sure fire thing often isn't.
A week after the human genome project was completed, I invested in a medical genetic fund, one that had a geneticist as an adviser. It went up slightly, zigzagged all over the place, and when the adviser split, so did I. I lost 8% on that one.
When Mandela was released and the embargo on South Africa was lifted, I invested in a SA gold mining fund. It zoomed up 20% in a month, then slowly descended, and I got out with a 10% gain, which was not bad for a two month deal, but I expected a lot better. Gold, I learned, is not rock-solid, but squishy-soft: it zooms up and plummets for obscure reasons.
We Americans pay a LOT MORE for cellphones than in other countries. Texting obviously costs them less to provide, but they mostly charge extra for it. They don't do this outside the US. There are two incompatible cell systems in the US, one used by Verizon and the other is ATT, I think. There is no reason for this, other than greed. Service in Japan is 10 years head of service in the US, they said on the news last night.
Competition does not truly exist when most people are limited by the phones they have and those ghastly contracts. When I can get unlimited calls and texting and long distance in the US for $30 total, I will switch. Some companies advertise $39.99 and that is all, and when you check them out, it is not all: there are taxes and fees and other crap that jacks it up to $48.95.