BTW Louise, if you think AT&T is bad in Minneapolis, try Sprint. I used to have Sprint, and I couldn't make a phone call from inside a building.
I switched to AT&T when my Sprint contract was up partly because I was going to Italy and wanted to make calls from there, and AT&T is one of two phone services that work overseas. I bought a gold Razr. When I got there, my friends with other colors of AT&T Razrs could make calls, but I couldn't. I talked to an AT&T person (on someone else's phone) and was told that it was something about the design of the gold Razr; it doesn't work overseas.
And no, that was not the time I swore.
oh I never use an American phone when overseas! I have a German phone with a Vodafone SIM chip in it that I use overseas, rechargeable from the Vodaphone D1 network. Works anywhere in Europe that I would care to go. But no, when I leave the NACN I do NOT ever try to access North America from overseas, I don't want to find out how much those phone calls would cost for roaming! Same as in Australia - I have a SIM Chip from Optus-Yes! that I carry around in my change purse and if I ever end up in Australia again, I'll pop that sucker in my German phone and use that. I bought the Motorola Timeport because it is a tri-band phone. And tri-band means it works on any of the three major communications protocols that are in use worldwide.
My Timeport is sitting in my uncollected luggage in Britain though - where it belongs! I suppose I ought to have that sent...