The vast majority of US cellular phones today are--as anyone who travels abroad soon learns if they don't already know--useless once they leave the territorial United States. Interestingly, and not necessarily any great surprise, Europeans and Asians and Africans do not experience the same problem when they travel anywhere but here. Fortunately, the problem is being addressed. Resolving it, however, will take some time.

How US Cellular Phones Developed the Way They Did

In the mid-1980s, Europe developed a digital wireless network based on a single standard. This GSM standard (global system mobile communications) spread to Asia, the Pacific Rim, and Africa. It is based on two simple concepts. First is that the same two dedicated radio frequencies are used everywhere for cellular communications, both data and voice. Second is that service is independent of equipment.

These ideas translate into 900 MHz and 1800 MHz as the wireless frequencies and into a removable SIM (subscriber identification module) circuit board in the GSM phone to enable connectivity. If you live in Germany and buy a cellular phone, you can use it in Australia, Japan, and South Africa as easily as at home. If you change providers, you buy a new SIM, which comes cheaper than a phone.

At about the same time, US cellular phones were developing at a different pace in an utterly different direction. First came the antitrust break-up of Ma Bell in 1984. Second came the FCC ruling in 1987, under which vendors were allowed to use whatever technology they wished (all at 1900 MHz) to provide service. Third, was that equipment is bought in bulk by providers, hard coded to the network, and resold to customers. If you change providers, you buy a new phone. If you leave the country, you leave your US cellular phones behind because they're useless---unless you want to pay from $1 to $7 a minute--almost everywhere else.