Mobile roaming the American way

We often moan about technology going wrong, but sometimes you have to appreciate how some things work really well. Take GSM mobile phones, for instance. In the US, the GSM standard is not as widespread as the rest of the world, and what GSM service exists is on a different frequency. This creates problems - as a piece on Techdirt, on the horrors of travelling abroad with a US mobile phone, demonstrates. A lack of foreign roaming agreements, not to mention the differences between the US technologies and frequencies, make going abroad and staying in touch a nightmare. "After traveling to four continents in the past two months with two phones, I have found that travel indeed can be perilous, but the worst muggings may not lurk around street corners but are in fact on the other side of the "Send" key," writes Derek Kerton. Praise be to standards. And to everybody following them.