Very surprising. We’ve had roaming for decades here, and its been free since like 2008. Wild they took this long when so much other tech they have is more advanced.
Have you seen websites in Japan?
You mean being able to find whatever I need without clicking through 5 links?
Both factors are related, I couldn’t find the article I was looking for but this one touches on it too. There’s a section for cell phones specifically
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galápagos_syndrome
The term “Galápagos syndrome” was originally coined to refer to Japanese 3G mobile phones, which had developed a large number of specialized features that were widely adopted in the Japanese market, but were unsuccessful abroad.[6][7] While the original usage of the term was to describe highly advanced phones that were incompatible outside of Japanese networks, as the mobile phone industry underwent drastic changes globally, the term was used to emphasize the associated anxiety about how the development of Japanese mobile phones and those in the worldwide economy went along different paths.
When a technology advances quickly and gets adopted in the local region (ex. Japan), it can be difficult to change when other parts of the world move forward with a different standard.
The opposite can also happen, where a region is slow to change and then haphazardly moves forward when the benefits are proven elsewhere. American payment systems for example
Very surprising indeed. Ever since GSM, i.e. 1992/93, roaming has been a thing.
NoOoOo tHaTs SoCiaLisMMMMM
