US cell phones may have compatibility problems, but technologically? I don't think so. I can use my cell phone in any major city in the US, Alaska, and Hawaii, it works in Canada as well. Works in most major travel corridors too. No long distance charges, no roaming fees. I can receive email, send messages, on and on. Just because it doesn't work in certain places in the world (and a small percentage of cell phone users in the US actually ever travel to those places) doesn't make it technologically inferior, any more than our electrical system is inferior to the European standards. Please get your terminology correct. Thanks for listening.

Now, my fingers, they &lt;are&gt; technologically inferior. This is supposed to be a reply to another post, feel free to ignore it. <BR>Bad, bad fingers... no more posting for you today.

If the US still has analogue phones, those would be technologically inferior.<BR><BR>What I always found amazing was that in the US the person being called may have to pay! That's changing though I gather.<BR><BR>Doug

Doug...<BR><BR>Not really. Almost all companies still give you a fixed number of minutes of what they call air time...always rounded up to the nearest minute. Somebody calls you and you talk for 61 seconds....you get charged 2 minutes of air time.<BR><BR>What has happened is that many plans give you unlimited minutes of airtimes nights and/or weekends depending on the company.<BR><BR>Prepaid plans in the US are very expensive.....the prepaid plans I know of in England are pretty cheap in comparison and receiving calls in England is always free (on English cell phone pre paid plans).

Hello, hello...say folks, look at the small print and check to see where that "American" phone of yours was made. The have your people call my people and we'll do lunch.

China???<BR><BR>Of course remember Nokia is a Finnish company.

Doug - it's just different payment standards. yes, caller pays (US mobile). this may be in part why the US mobile phone system has not taken off quite as rapidly/become quite as ubiquitous as the rest of the world. add to that there is already a massive infrastructure in place for landlines in the US (whereas, in "emerging nations" for instance, they went, in many cases, straight to mobile phones - why pay for a relatively outdated infrastructure?)...<BR><BR>but, in the US, local calls (land lines) are 'free' whereas in many other countries the payment structure is set up differently, you may pay a small amount per minute.<BR><BR>this changes the incentives - people on the margin may not sit on the internet and surf for hours, if they are paying even 5 cents a minute on top of their internet provider fee. <BR><BR>this is why the US (initially at least) really surged ahead of many parts of the world with the internet - the basic system which was put in place since "time immemorial" allowed for those incentives - why not sit online for 2 hours daily if it's free, if you are in Australia you might pay 25 cents a minute - it adds up! doesn't mean Australia or the UK or France was WRONG in having a different payment system - it worked just fine until it became apparent it drove incentives. I understand now that they payment system is changing, at least for internet usage. AOL UK for instance is sucking up the last mile fees (as a for-instance) but they are getting it somewhere else. <BR><BR>many times it's market driven standards and consequences.<BR><BR>clear as mud?

I am sorry, I meant caller and called pays. If you have a mobile phone in the US, you pay EACH time you are on the phone - regardless of who called whom. and if you are both on a mobile, you both pay.

Can someone explain to me why Americans can't use their own mobile phones in Europe? I'm just curious as I'm Australian & my phone works great in Asia & Europe - my Telco has roaming agreements with telcos in most countries. It makes things so convenient.

The european cell phone system uses different frequencies from those in the USA. Thus the cell phones sold in their respective areas are not compatible.<BR>Technologically, the insides of the phones are very similar.

Thanks for your reply Jason - I assume you mean the US uses different frequencies to pretty much the rest of the world, not just Europe, which would explain things - I was never sure before why I c ouldn't use my phone there but could elsewhere.<BR>Cheers...

Actually, I took a Nextel i2000 to Europe. Its works in the US and in Europe. I am not an engineer, but this is my understanding of the differences. China has decided to implement CDMA, which is a U.S. Technology, patented by Qualcomm. The older US standard,TDMA,is being used in the US by many, and with some adaptation, can be made compatible with the standard used in Europe. I think it is called GS. Therefore, some US companies are investing in the older technology for the short-term in order to get compatible. However, many believe that CDMA is the only one that can provide the advanced technology for the future, and therefore, may eventually become the world standard. My grasp of this is from following the stock market news, so it could be true or false!!!

You can use your mobile phone in Europe and other parts of the world if you bought the Ericson World phone or the Nokia (dual frequency)..or any other 'dual frequency' mobile phone that uses the GSM Sim card. The dual frequencies used both America's GSM 900 aswell as the other GSM (1800?). Some carries will allow roaming to almost any countries in the world...however, it is very expensive!