>already taken and being used for other things
Military use they said, unable to specify what exactly that meant. While the same NATO alliance had no problem to allow the use of these frequencies for GSM in Europe. (and in Canada it wouldn't have been a Problem either).

...yeah but logos, the frequency issue is a small one. As Europe as it went along went with two frequencies (900 and 1800) so dual band phones were developed, the issue of 3 or 4 frequencies was simple to solve and is really not any sort of problem today....the more interesting discussion was the hold one company had in that era (was it quadcomm, I forget) which hindered the development of gsm in the USA until Omnipoint AKA Voicestream which was later to be bought out by DT and to become T Mobile....of course as noted we're moving on from 2g GSM to third and fourth generation technologies which stress data.

You should try the 3.05 liter bottles. Since the law regulating packaging sizes has been changed to allow any size now and a 25c bottle deposit is applied by law on any plastic bottle containing carbonated drinks up 3 liters for years,
the result is the 3.05 liter plastic bottle. It comes with an extra holder (unlike the 5 liter beer can).

Government madness at work.

It was that one big telephone company who was pulling the strings. Was not their preferred technology.

logos.....is that 25¢ deposit a German thing or an eu thing? Don't remember it in the UK.

Only German, but it shows the results changed EU regulations (size) and local law (deposit) can create.
Who wants such a big bottle anyway.

<i>American banks do not adopt the chip technology because it's cheaper to continue to absorb the cost of fraud. European banks have adopted the technology as a matter of principle, irrespective of the cost of fraud.</i>

This is simply wrong, the European banks do it to counter the higher rates of fraud, not out of some principle. I mean, what would the principle be? Were it really about principle, then why don't the banks simply indemnify the consumer for any fraudulent charges? The reality is that the consumer bears more risk with many European cards than with most US cards, making the principle argument highly dubious.

<i>European merchants are reluctant to swipe cards with magnetic stripes because of the high incidence of fraud with such cards</i>

I have NEVER encountered a merchant that didn't want to swipe my card. I've encountered a few people that don't know how to do it (usually poorly-trained, minimum wage employees, like at a supermarket), but I've never encountered even the slightest resistance about swiping a card. Which is a good thing, because (as noted before here) the European chip-and-pin systems are very often not compatible, so you sometimes have to swipe and sign, even with a chip-and-pin card.

<i>But I do agree with the concept that the profits US banks make on credit cards are so humongeously large that the fraud being committed simply eats up a miniscule amount of the profits.</i>

It doesn't eat into the banks' profits at all. It only eats into the merchants' profits.

<i>The same would happen if the USA decimalized, so to speak, the archaic measurement system it uses.</i>

Most people do decimalize in daily usage. When at the store, do you order 8 ounces of meat from the butcher, or half a pound? Do you say half a mile, or 2640 feet? There is no change because there is simply no need for a change.

I agree...I've never had any trouble using an archaic magnetic strip card in...London, Paris, Munich, Berlin, Rome, Florence, Venice, Nice but then again there's are all places used to dealing with tourists......I'm not so sure I wouldn't have trouble off the beaten track (but then again I rarely venture off the beaten track)....

Interesting story....I was on a winter tour coming into Lucerne about three years ago....it was 1730 and as dark as the middle of the night because that's the way it is in winter....so the TD says we'll take a look at the Lion Monument...one of the Americans on the bus asks the TD what the temperature was...he looked at the temperature on the coach and said 8 degrees....the woman, quite appropriately dressed for 8 degree weather says I can't go out in such freezing weather this way.......

A restaurant down the street from the Jacquemart-Andre museum didn't take my magnetic strip card. My dining companions (who were locals) told both the waitress and the manager to swipe it, but they insisted it was impossible.

A couple of times when I tried to use my magnetic strip card in London, I was asked to show additional identification. We discussed this before here. Visa/MC regulations allow a merchant to ask for additional identification but do not allow them to refuse the transaction if the signatures match. Of course I will not show additional identification when using my credit cards as any additional identification besides the credit card number can lead to identify theft...in both cases they did complete the transaction. Be aware that a merchant cannot refuse a credit card transaction for failure to show additional identification and you never should.

Thanks for the link jpie.

I don't think the NYT contributed much to the world of knowledge however. The woman who couldn't get cash from an ATM was probably using a credit card, not an ATM card. I've never had a problem getting cash from cash machines in Europe with my ATM card but my credit card won't work. The article did not say if it was a credit, debit, or ATM card.

I don't know what the problem is with carrying a wad of back-up cash. I always have ten $100 bills with me when I travel in Europe but I haven't had to use them in years. I carry enough euros for several days' expenses, obtained at cash machines. I only use credit cards for major expenses (e.g. hotels, train tickets, car rentals), paying for nearly everything else with cash.

Also, I still have my ABN-AMRO account. My Wereldpass "ATM" card has the C+P thingy. It comes in handy once in a while. It seems to act the same as a debit card in the USA. I wonder if an American ATM card would work in those hand-held machines used by restaurants for C+P cards. I'll try it next time.

Some discussion of metric crept into this thread. I've used metric all my life as an engineer and taught it in high school. IMO it makes as much sense to convert the USA to metric as it would be to convert the USA to 220 volts and 50 Hz. If you can't handle 12 inches to the foot how do you deal with 60 minutes in an hour and 24 hours in a day. Oh the problems!! British highways still use miles -- and the pubs serve pints. OMG!!

In my experience with restaurants in many places in Europe, American credit cards will work in the portable terminals they bring to the tables and the vast vast majority of times the waiters knew exactly what to do (swipe it rather than insert it into the pin reader)......then there's dcc to watch out for but that's another story.

<i>British highways still use miles -- and the pubs serve pints. OMG!!</i>

I believe they have also pretty much abandoned metric in the supermarkets. I was living in the UK when they tried to switch the supermarkets - funny.

<<I don't know what the problem is with carrying a wad of back-up cash.>>

Theft, inconvenience, and no miles.

And more fees to get that cash.

"Who cares what the rest of the world uses?"

the absolute ultimate in outlook and attitude these days...

<i>the absolute ultimate in outlook and attitude these days...</i>

Ahhh yes. The reflexive, "I'm better because I have an 'international' outlook" attitude. FWIW, I do have a pretty international outlook, a lot of experience living in metric countries, and I still don't see why the US should switch to metric.

I ask the question again: with specific reference to using metric measurements, why should the US switch? What efficiency gains are to be had? What are the switching costs? Do the efficiency gains outweigh the costs to switch?

It is a practical question and what the rest of the world uses is, indeed, pretty inconsequential. I mean, if the most compelling reason to switch to metric is to make it minutely easier for a few international travelers, then it is easy to see why the switch hasn't been made.

What I can't understand is why the major credit card companies (Visa, MasterCard, even AmEx) cannot issue someone a second card that is chip-and-pin compatible for foreign travel. I tried to do this with MCard last year and they thought I was crazy for even suggesting it. Then they insisted (wrongly) that the paypass-type wand would work as a chip and pin (they apologized later for the bad information). I vaguely understand the reluctance to change over the entire country to the c&p if it would be cost prohibitive, but I can't think of a reason why they couldn't issue a second, Europe-compatible, card to people who travel.

<i>I can't think of a reason why they couldn't issue a second, Europe-compatible, card to people who travel.</i>

There is no European standard, so you would have trouble getting one that would work in all countries. At that point, they have to decide: do we offer a card that works in France? Italy? Switzerland? UK?