Today I got my seventh welcome to a country message from T-Mobile in the past two weeks. Each one is the same except for the name of the country I am arriving in. Today's message said:
Welcome to Turkey! Your T-Mobile plan......(benefits)
That is, except for the fifth message. That one said: Welcome abroad! No country listed. The reason is that I was on a bus from Jerusalem to the largest city in the area controlled by the Palestinian Authority: Ramallah. Although I passed through a massive security checkpoint going to and from Ramallah, I did not pass an actual international border. So T-Mobile diplomatically said, Welcome abroad!
One reason to travel is to see and feel and experience the details of life in a given place. The bus ride from Old City Jerusalem to Ramallah is less than ten miles, but it was one hour to get there, two hours to get back. At the security area on the way back, we left the first bus and boarded another. It was the same bus route number, but a different bus.
Businesses, big and small adapt to the reality they find. T-Mobile has, I assume, messages for the 193 nations recognized by the United Nations. The territory controlled by the Palestinian Authority has observer status at the UN as does the Holy See in Rome.
Welcome abroad!
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