"Also why our cellphone technology is behind most of the world."
Our cellphone technology is not behind most of the world.
When Europe mandated GSM 15 years ago, the digital technology - spread across europe WAS superior at the time.....CDMA developed in the US trumped it..... The European version, recognizing it was better, modified it so that they could continue to mandate a specific flavor that would not be compatible with US-based CDMA.
So, lesson is that gov't mandates of technology rarely have any benefit, and in the happenstance that some benefit accidentally appears, it is short-lived.
We still have several competing interfaces, but all modern cell protocols are derived from Qualcomm's CDMA patent portfolio to some degree.
Digital Radio will come when it is ready for the US market.
I was refering more to the phones themselves. Go to Japan and look at the features on their phones.