If you rely on your cell phone to keep in touch while you're on the road, you've probably experienced that evil "searching for network" or similar message in a far away place at an inopportune time. Researchers at Bell Labs (and probably everyone else) think that you shouldn't have to deal with access problems when you're away from your local calling area and have announced a software breakthrough that will enable global roaming across all wireless network types, including third-generation (3G) technologies such as CDMA2000, Universal Mobile Telecommunications Services (UMTS) and other high-speed data access technologies such as 802.11. The software architecture, called Common Operations (COPS), will allow mobile subscribers to access voice and data services, information, and messages when they are roaming outside of their home network, regardless of the type of network. COPS features a "protocol gateway" capability that translates data from networks employing a variety of protocols into a single, common language. This makes it possible to maintain a single subscriber profile, including authentication, authorization and location data that can be accessed from a variety of network types. For a subscriber to initiate a mobile call or activate services such as voicemail, the wireless network must be able to identify the subscriber's location, obtain the subscriber's profile (listing the allowed services), validate the caller's right to the services, and then authenticate the caller. Home location registers (HLRs), which are databases of subscriber information, currently perform these functions only when wireless subscribers travel in their home networks, or when roaming on networks using similar technology. COPS provides a generic interface to key HLR functions, translating user data and signaling technologies from cellular protocols to Internet protocols (IP) and vice versa automatically. This lets several protocol-specific gateways be built, each allowing data stored on the HLR to be accessed by a different type of network. Building an HLR with this software architecture lets customer databases be updated automatically, accessed by multiple network types, and support both voice and high-speed data services.