DATE: Friday, September 12, 1997            TAG: 9709120618

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   46 lines

CELLULAR SERVICE FOLLOWS YOU AROUND THE WORLD PUT A CARD INTO A GLOBALROAM PHONE AND YOU CAN BE REACHED ANYWHERE IN 55 COUNTRIES.

Talk about a cellular phone that roams. GTE Wireless has introduced a service that lets a person use the same number to receive a call in Chesapeake, China or the Czech Republic.

The company calls the service GlobalRoam and it works like this:

A customer rents or buys a GlobalRoam phone and inserts a SIM card - a programmable device the size of a credit card. The SIM card identifies the customer as a member of the GlobalRoam system. It translates the call and allows direct international dialing.

``The call will ring at your home cellular phone, but of course that's off because you're in Europe,'' explained Elizabeth Mayo, major accounts manager at GTE Wireless. ``It then forwards the call to the GlobalRoam phone and tries you in 55 countries.''

The SIM card makes the GlobalRoam phone act like the customer's regular cellular phone, number and all, said Carla Ussery, general manager for GTE Wireless in Hampton Roads.

``The first time they're overseas and the phone rings,'' Ussery said, ``the person who's calling might have no idea they're overseas.''

Once back home, charges will appear on the user's normal cellular phone bill in dollars. Those charges, at least for now, could discourage the average customer from renting a GlobalRoam phone during, say, a vacation to Europe.

A person can rent a GlobalRoam phone for $50 a week or $100 a month. There is also a $7.95 monthly fee, $1.49 a minute usage charge, plus the cost of the international call. But GTE Wireless is targeting corporate and military users.

``In virtually every major international business center, we have GlobalRoam,'' Mayo said. ``A lot of the military are really hot on this.''

The GlobalRoam service is the first two-way service between GSM - the digital European wireless phone standard - and AMPS, the United States' analog cellular standard, GTE Wireless says. GTE's European partner is DeTeMobil, an expansive German telecommunications firm. MEMO: Consumers are discovering that enticing cellular promotions can

lead to high phone bills/D3 ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu