i like to think we will eventually catch up the cell phone industry is constantly updated so who knows one day it might happen

I have used a cell phone in India, UK, Europe and the USA. And EVERYWHERE else but here has inter-compatibility of phones between companies, SIM card usage, pay-as-you-go phones, WAY better service reception, and overall ease of usage of cell phones/customer service from phone companies. So what is keeping the good ol' USA from keeping up with the GSM technology that the rest of the world uses, and we keep insisting on using our sub-standard technology?