It's really quite annoying that when you go overseas pay as you go type mobiles don't let you roam. I'd like a courtesy zone in airports to allow you to connect to your own domestic provider just to say you've arrived safely.
-- neilp, Apr 04 2005

np, we know that when you pop up here ten minutes later!

can you text from europe?
-- po, Apr 04 2005


This would be a really cool thing for a U.S. mobile provider to do, and advertise it as a perk of their service. For a GSM provider, assuming you have a "tri-band" or "quad-band" phone, this would amount to them agreeing to "eat" any international roaming charges for short calls made within a short distance of known international airports.

For a non-GSM provider (Sprint, Verizon and Nextel in the US), it would be considerably harder. They'd have to put equipment in each airport, and there are international radio licensing issues to consider.

I like the idea, though. In the US the providers are really competitive, and (at least until they finish merging with each other) I could see one doing this.
-- krelnik, Apr 04 2005


I call these "payphones."
-- contracts, Apr 04 2005



random, halfbakery