The growth of cell phone users in the U.S. has tapered off from the breakneck pace of 50%

annually in the late 1990s to what analysts project will be a 15% to 20% rise in 2002, and no more than that in 2003. To some extent, numerous surveys have found, slower growth in demand reflects consumer disillusionment with just about every aspect of cell-phone service—its reliability, quality, and notorious customer service.

The cooling off in demand threatens to cascade through the industry: The big six U.S. cell-phone carriers—Verizon Wireless, Cingular Wireless, AT＆T Wireless, Sprint PCS, Voice Stream, and Nextel Communications—are engaged in a fierce price war that imperils their timetables for becoming profitable, not to mention their efforts to whittle down their mountains of debt. As the carriers have begun to cut costs wireless equipment makers—companies such as Lucent, Nokia, and Ericsson have been left with a market that's bound to be smaller than they had anticipated. Handset makers have been insulated so far, but they, too face a nagging uncertainty. They'll soon introduce advanced phones to the U.S. market that will run on the new networks the carriers are starting up over the next year or two. But the question then will be: Will Americans embrace these snazzy data features and their higher costs—with the wild enthusiasm that Europeans and Asians have？

Long before the outcome in clear, the industry will have to adopt a new mind-set. "In the old days, it was all about connectivity." says Andrew Cole, an analyst with wireless consultancy Adventist. Build the network, and customers will come. From now on, the stakes will be higher. The new mantra: Please customers, or you may not survive.

To work their way out of this box, the carriers are spending huge sums to address the problem. Much of Sprint PCS's $3.4 billion in capital outlays this year will be for new stations. And in fact, the new high-speed, high-capacity nationwide networks due to roll out later this year should help ease the calling capacity crunch that has caused many consumer complaints. In the meantime, some companies are using better training and organization to keep customers happy. The nation's largest rural operator, Alltel (AT), recently reorganized its call centers so that a customer's query goes to the first operator who's available anywhere in the country, instead of the first one available in the customer's home area. That should cut waiting time to one minute from three to five minutes previously.

What is the text mainly about？

A．The bad service in the U.S. cell-phone industry.

B．The crisis in the U.S. cell phone industry.

C．The conflicts among cell-phone companies in the U.S.

D．The price of the U.S. cell-phone industry.