The Digital Tower of Babel

When we pack our things for a trip abroad, the right electrical adapter is often a vital item. This is not only the case for overseas travels: even a simple two hour drive from my home in Genoa, Italy, either north or west, brings me (and, more importantly, my computer) into another electronic jurisdiction. The European Union, who famously enacted strict rules for the size of bananas,1seems unable to solve the problem.

Not that the European Union is always to blame, albeit this is a favourite pastime among its citizens. Other, much more complicated devices, are perfectly at ease in any part of Europe (and in most of the world, for that matter): GSM telephones. As a rule of thumb, every GSM telephone is able to work with any GSM network. European carriers did not have the choice: the use of GSM technology was mandatory. The most interesting consequence is that European consumers can easily chan...

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