[GadgetKen]

Originally Posted by DRNewcomb

Worse than that. If you show up in DPRK with a mobile phone the only roaming you'll be doing is back and forth in your prison cell.

And I can only imagine what they would do if I showed up in the DPRK with my Iridium satphone (one of the few countries where it's banned for political reasons).

North Korea has official mobile phone service through a 3G network set up by Orascom of Egypt called Koryolink. Other than high handset prices the average worker can not afford, international direct dial is blocked and some handset functions are deliberately disabled. Unofficially near the North Korea/China border, some people use smuggled Chinese phones to call internationally on Chinese networks that can be accessed: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repor...rticle4103903/

Orascom did sign an agreement with roaming provider Link2One http://www.mach.com/en/News-Events/P...ne-Roaming-Hub but I highly doubt this would ever lead to any official roaming on Koryolink.