North Korea banning phones

[brianz]

so the DPRK are banning mobile phones? they have been doing that ever since the mobile phone was invented. last time i was there, they let me keep my phone coz they didn't have enough space to keep phones with so many visitors coming from all over the world to watch the arirang. they're probably tightening that law especially with the arrival of mobile phones with camera, and maybe because most phones have GPRS capability which could be misconstrued by the less technological sounded north korean army personnel as GPS. it doesn't matter if you can bring a phone inside the country, you won't get any signal anyway. basicaly, if you plan to visit north korea, be prepared to part with your phone coz the only way you're getting it back is at the airport on your way out.

[Michael]

Actually, they started allowing them in November of 2002. They do have a network there now, and they are seemingly shutting it down.

The network probably just isn't GSM, which is why you got no signal.

[brianz]

most likely because my network don't have any roaming agreement with theirs.

it would have been handy though since making international calls from the hotel are around US$17 a minute and US$17 for each page of fax. crazy huh :)