Have cell phone, will roam–worldwide

ZDNET: “Bell Labs researchers say they’ve jumped a significant hurdle in the continuing development of cell phone
technology: allowing a caller to use the same phone anywhere in the world.

So-called global roaming is virtually impossible today because wireless carriers use different types of phone networks
that can’t communicate with one another and require their own specially made phones. Business people traveling
overseas often carry different cell phones because carriers on each continent use different networks.”