JDa™© wrote:

>> SO... for domestic US users, the choice would only be ATT (gsm) or
>> T-Mobile gsm)

>> or Advantage, or Aradigm or Alaska Wireless or Alltel or CellularOne
>> or ANW or Arctic Slope Cooperative or CT Cube or Caprock Celluar or
>> Centennial or West Central Wireless or Chariton Valley or Amerilink or
>> Cincinnati Bell or Coleman or Commnet or Concho or Convoy or Cordova
>> or Corr or MBO or BigFoot or ...
>>
>> depending on where you live and work, you could have allotta choices!
>> Regards
>
> I believe that all those above use the AT&T (I think its there
> backbone?) service.

No. "Backbone" service is something different - MCI might be the biggest
player. This list from GSMWorld has flaws ... some companies have
promised service and not delivered yet .. others have died or gone away.
Last time I counted there we 58 such GSM companies in the US. Maybe 30
are active. An iPhone user needs a carrier account - connecting to a
"backbone" is something different.

> Or any vendor that has a service agreement with AT&T to handle
> sellphones using the
> ATT network.
>
I think there are about 65 Mobile Virtual Network Operators or are you
talking about roaming agreements? I think ATT claims 192 or so roaming
agreements around the world.
Regards, Gordon