Is the need for an "International" SIM Card ending?

[snidely]

1. I understand that users in the EU can now roam on each others networks at reasonable rates.
2. It wasn't too many years ago that users in the U.S. paid a lot of money just to roam outside their local area. You paid a lot for long distance just within the U.S. Now, users in the U.S. can go anywhere within the country and call anywhere within the country FREE. Unlimited cell calling in the U.S. is less than $100. (In the U.S., cell phones work like land lines, no extra charges to call a cell phone.)
I think, sometime in the near future, roaming between countries will be seamless. Many companies already own stakes in several countries (Vodafone, TMobile et al). We can already use 3rd party routing to call from country to country for only a few cents (pesos, sheckels).
3. There is now a service from Sprint in the U.S. where you can get unlimited data via wifi over their 3G network. You get a small "wifi card" (a little bigger than a pack of cigarettes) and can connect up to 5 devices to its wifi signal as long as they are within 10 meters. Seems to me you could make use of that to make voice calls. No contract is required. You can just pay for it for the months you need service. Seems to me visitors from overseas could make good use of this.
4. We just returned from 2 weeks in Argentina, Brazil and Uraguay. We made good use of T-Mobile (U.S.) UMA feature that allows you to make calls just as though you were standing in the U.S. Rogers, Canada has the same feature. (I think a couple countries overseas have this.) With wifi getting almost universal (like all McDonalds), roaming for free is quite easy. Expensive hotels still charge an extra high fee for accessing wifi, but moderate and lower end hotels have it for free. Many restaurants had free wifi.

Bottom line - I felt no need to get prepaid SIMS. I did pay TMobile the 66 cents/day for the 2 weeks to get/send unlimited email via our BlackBerrys. We also made use of the BB free message system to keep in touch if we got separated.

For visitors to the U.S. = look into Sprint's unlimited data service. Also, T-Mobile has unlimited prepaid calling for $40/mo. That, with GoogleVoice would let you call home for 2-3 cents/min. to most first world landlines.

...mike