Really? That's a terrible way of working.
Here in the UK, if I'm using data on my iPhone 2G and I get a call, the call overrides the data and my phone rings.
I would've thought it was the same everywhere. The US really is behind with mobile communications.
If you mean behind as in, a whole lot more area to cover, yes we probably are. We know what the technology is, and how to use it, but we need a few more towers and repeaters than some of the smaller countries. So the upgrade cycle takes longer. Our shifting to even lower frequencies (700MHz) will help our speed of upgrades (less towers than Europe's proposed 2100Mhz or 2800MHz frequencies)