U.S. cell users slow to use international roaming

From...

By Morris Dye

(IDG) -- A director of marketing and strategy for IBM who lives in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Prial takes frequent overseas trips to destinations outside the range of the code-division multiple access and time-division multiple access systems that dominate the North American digital wireless market. As a result, Prial used two wireless phones -- one registered with a U.S. provider for CDMA access and one registered with a European service provider for use on the global system for mobile communication, or GSM, networks common throughout much of Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

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Using two different phone numbers was a hassle, though, so with GSM gaining a significant foothold in North America, Prial and his 15-year-old son devised a simple test to determine whether GSM coverage had developed sufficiently for him to kick his two-phone habit for good. "I had my old phone, and I had this one," he said later, holding up a new GSM handset. "I had my son in the back seat, and we drove all around town, and he was yelling 'Three bars! One bar! Two bars!'" If enough "bars" of signal strength showed up on the GSM phone's display, Prial reasoned, he could sign up with a U.S.-based GSM service to use one phone at home and abroad.

That's exactly what the GSM Association, an international trade group that is working to develop the wireless standard, hopes more Americans will do. Although GSM roaming is available to customers of most major non-GSM networks in the U.S. (AT&T's WorldConnect service and Nextel Worldwide, for example), U.S. travelers have been slow to catch on to the convenience of international roaming.

The GSM Association reported last month that 401 GSM networks were on the air in 168 countries worldwide, servicing 475 million subscribers and providing more coverage than any other land-based mobile phone platform because of reciprocal service agreements between network operators. A typical British traveler, for example, can step off a plane in Munich, Moscow, Harare or Hanoi, switch on the same handset that works back home in London, and place and receive calls without having to use a different number or make a separate payment to a local phone company. And while GSM networks use different radio frequencies in different parts of the world (900, 1800 or 1900 MHz), all of the major handset manufacturers now produce dual- or tri-band models designed with global travelers in mind.

Meanwhile, 6,500 cities in 48 U.S. states and six Canadian provinces have GSM coverage, according to the association, with a combined customer base exceeding 10 million users in the U.S. and Canada. (This compares with some 200 million users of CDMA and other non-GSM digital platforms in North America, according to the EMC World Cellular Database.) "Today, 99 of our top 125 international GSM partners in 48 countries can now roam to all GSM networks in North America," says Bob Brown, chairman of the association's North America interest group.

While this may come as good news to some frequent travelers in the U.S., the growth of the GSM standard doesn't necessarily mean that all travelers should switch. The GSM Global Roaming Forum launched last year aims to set interoperability standards for all major wireless networks, potentially enabling users of CDMA, TDMA and other currently incompatible systems to swim in the global GSM pool. Combine these efforts with a new generation of wireless handsets -- such as Motorola's i2000plus, which works with both GSM and iNet (a proprietary version of the TDMA platform) -- and North American travelers will ultimately gain access to easy international roaming no matter what service they use at home.

As for Jon Prial, he decided not to wait for the brave new world of open wireless standards. After completing his informal test of local network coverage, Prial asked his son in the back seat for a verdict. "He said the GSM had more reception, and I went 'Yes!' -- because I really wanted that one in order to be able to carry one phone around the world."

3G dials havoc for mobile giants
April 24, 2001
Mobile ringtones sound Web alert
April 23, 2001
Mobile market begins to stutter
April 20, 2001

Trucker McLane rolls out dual-mode wireless vehicle system
(Computerworld)
Wireless remorse
(The Industry Standard)
DoCoMo's no go
(The Industry Standard)
Optimistic forecasts fuel wireless hype
(Computerworld)
Cutting back on key taps
(The Industry Standard)
Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola plan wireless initiative
(IDG.net)
Boeing sees pricey in-flight Internet venture
(The Industry Standard)
Going Dutch with your mobile phone
(IDG.net)

AT&T Corp.
Nextel Communications, Inc
Motorola

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