USA mobile phone.

[hallj1]

Why didn't our mobile phone work in Wyoming, South Dakota area but worked OK in Denver?The phone is only a year old.The locals could use their mobiles OK.

[dzug]

Probably differing frequency bands in the two areas, only one of which your phone uses.

[Trotbot]

International roaming only works in about 70% of the US, for network compatability reasons. No idea why that should be the case though.

[hallj1]

Thanks for that. So next time we go what do we do to get mobile phone coverage whilst driving in the wilds for instance?

[Trotbot]

I think the answer is to rent a US mobile on arrival, but it is not something I have done, so I am not sure whether it would solve the problem in the wilds of South Dakota. I do this when I go to Korea, and I divert my phone to the Korean number, which seems to work ok after a few beeps and whines

[trevHCS]

Get yourself a quad band phone for starters (tend to be more expensive), as that covers all the usual frequencies.

Then hope that your network provider has done a deal with all the other networks in the US so you can use your phone with them. The US system seems to be very mucked up and all over the place. I'd imagine Vodaphone have the best chance.