新视野大学英语读写教程听力 第四册 课文 4t04a

[-1:-6.00]To further reduce the waiting list for phones,
[-1:-7.00]Hungary has leased rights to a Dutch -Scandinavian group of companies
[-1:-8.00]to build and operate what it says
[-1:-9.00]will be one of the most advanced digital mobile phone systems in the world.
[-1:10.00]In fact, wireless is one of the most popular ways
[-1:11.00]to get a phone system up fast in developing countries.
[-1:12.00]It's cheaper to build radio towers
[-1:13.00]than to string lines across mountain ridges,
[-1:14.00]and businesses eager for reliable service
[-1:15.00]are willing to accept a significantly higher price tag for a wireless call
[-1:16.00]— the fee is typically two to four times as much
[-1:17.00]as for calls made over fixed lines.
[-1:18.00]Wireless demand and usage have also
[-1:19.00]exploded across the entire width and breadth of Latin America.
[-1:20.00]For wireless phone service providers,
[-1:21.00]nowhere is business better than in Latin America —
[-1:22.00]having an operation there is like having an endless pile of money at your disposal.
[-1:23.00]BellSouth Corporation,with operations in four wireless markets,
[-1:24.00]estimates its annual revenue per average customer
[-1:25.00]at about $2,000 as compared to $860 in the United States.
[-1:26.00]That's partly because Latin American customers
[-1:27.00]talk two to four times as long on the phone as people in North America.
[-1:28.00]Thailand is also turning to wireless,
[-1:29.00]as a way to allow Thais to make better use of all the time they spend stuck in traffic.
[-1:30.00]And it isn't that easy to call or fax from the office:
[-1:31.00]the waiting list for phone lines has from one to two million names on it.
[-1:32.00]So mobile phones have become the rage among businesspeople,
[-1:33.00]who can remain in contact despite the traffic jams.
[-1:34.00]Vietnam is making one of the boldest leaps.
[-1:35.00]Despite a per person income of just $220 a year,
[-1:36.00]all of the 300,000 lines Vietnam plans to add annually
[-1:37.00]will be optical fiber with digital switching,
[-1:38.00]rather than cheaper systems that send electrons over copper wires.
[-1:39.00]By going for next-generation technology now,
[-1:40.00]Vietnamese telecommunications officials
[-1:41.00]say they'll be able to keep pace with anyone in Asia for decades.
[-1:42.00]For countries that have lagged behind for so long,
[-1:43.00]the temptation to move ahead in one jump is hard to resist.