It's even worse than that. Two of the carriers, AT&T Wireless and Cingular, are only now *upgrading* to GSM, where the majority of the networks is still on a much older incompatible standard TDMA. AT&T (my carrier) doesn't even provide a universal phone that works on both networks.
Now of course the US solution is increased deregulation and competition with Local Number Portability (switch carriers while keeping your number). We'll see how it works. Nat Here's another example of why we need international standards (from the LA Times): "Unlike in Europe and Asia, where uniform wireless standards make choosing cell phone service relatively simple, the U.S. market is divided among three major transmission standards that can make one company's phone useless on another network. Carriers exploit those differences -- and couple them with long-term service contracts with hefty termination fees -- to bolster customer loyalty. For example, Verizon Wireless and Sprint PCS use a digital technology called code-division multiple access to transmit phone calls. As a result, the two carriers' phones can't be used on networks run by AT&T Wireless Services Inc., Cingular Wireless and T-Mobile USA Inc., which use a competing standard called GSM, or global system for mobile communications. They also cannot be used with Nextel Communications, which uses a third standard." I said it before and I'll say it again: we need 1 system of measurement throughout the world, 1 cell phone system, 1 currency in Europe, 1 currency in Latin America, 1 currency in SE Asia, etc.
