I'll chime in here too, and say that IBM/ATT has declined dramatically in service of late, although I started to notice it about a year ago, several months before the ATT takeover. As well, I found the "roaming" fees to be a real annoyance, given that I was originally solicited on free world wide coverage. Last year I ended up paying $24/hr extra, from Hamburg.

But my biggest complaint is the lack of access numbers. I've had problems in major centres such as Bangkok and Mumbai (although there may be local "government" problems in those places.) But mostly, it's the small towns that I end up in that have no coverage whatsoever. If you are always in large urbans centers, you're probably OK. But if your in Marinette WI, Atlantic Beach NC, or here with me now in Rockland ME, your just plain out of luck.

I've taken to researching local ISPs in advance of my trip, and signing up for a short term when I arrive. So far so good. Rates have ranged from 1$/day in Atlantic Beach, to $40 for 60 hours (minimum I could get, though I only need it for a week) here in Rockland.

Might be trickier overseas, but I pulled it off in Hamburg. 'Course, now every time I use Microsoft Fax, I get a dialogue box in German. No idea what it means. I just click on [OK] and carry on.: