Despite a couple obstacles coming up at the last second, I went ahead and got a phone from VoiceStream. Instead of trying to find and order a Ericsson T28 World, I went ahead and got the Motorola L7089. It's tri-band GSM, so I can roam anywhere in the world.

It's amazing what having a corporation can do for you as a 17 year old. Normally, I would have had to put up some fairly large deposit to get approved for a phone, and then only after I waited until I turned 18. International roaming (with a more in-depth credit check) would have been entirely out of the question. So I didn't get a phone. the gonzo projcect, LLC got a phone and is nice enough to let me use it.

Calls to the US from Australia are only like $0.90/minute, and people can call my normal number and get connected to me anywhere.

One of the coolest things about this, though, is the two-way email. I'll now be able to both send and recieve email on my phone (or use the infrared on the phone to hook up to my computer and get online). That rocks.

And with GPRS and WAP stuff about to come onto the GSM scene, the world's about to get a whole lot cooler. I'm definitely getting an Ericsson T36 when Voicestream supports all that. My world will then be complete.