Congressman Darrell Issa, Republican from San Diego, is outraged, outraged! he says, that plans for Iraq’s post-war telecommunications infrastructure includes building a cellphone network that runs on GSM, a standard developed by… surprise, surprise, the newly-loathed French! Ever the patriot, Issa proposes that the American-made CDMA standard be adopted instead:
It is outrageous that these agencies are planning to spend taxpayer dollars on a competitive foreign technology, when we have a superior U.S. technology (CDMA) available to us. This news is especially offensive given the French opposition to U.S. diplomatic and military initiatives related to Iraq.
Of course it doesn’t hurt that this would benefit CDMA creator Qualcomm, which has its headquarters in Issa’s district and kicked him some cash for his last election campaign.
