Mapping out the wireless-phone future

Article Abstract:

Personal communications services (PCS) could improve on cellular telephone and become more widespread if the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) learns from cellular telephone's shortcomings when regulating PCS. Cellular prices can be up to 80 times as high as standard calls, due largely to insufficient competition. The FCC can ensure more competition with PCS by licensing more carriers per cell. The number of carriers depends partly on the number of cells established. The FCC is considering establishing 487, 194, 47 or one territory. One territory would create a national communication system, which has never been done with cellular telephone; this system is preferred by MCI Communications, the second largest long-distance company. Cellular companies prefer 487 cells because that is the number they use already. Newer companies prefer 47 territories because each area would be defined not only by telephone service but also by mail routes and commuting patterns, making the companies more competitive. The success of PCS also depends on how quickly these decisions can be made and a system can be established, as well as how manageable that system is.

Outlook, Cellular radio

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A better way for the wireless caller?

Article Abstract:

The Telecommunications Industry Assn adopts the code division multiple access (CDMA) digital standard for transmitting up to 20 different cellular telephone conversations on a single channel. CDMA technology breaks a single transmission into multiple fragments and attaches a coded label to each fragment, allowing the transmission to be reassembled at the receiving end. Telephone companies likely to support the CDMA standard in their cellular networks include Bell Atlantic, GTE and Pacific Telesis, while Time Warner Inc plans to use CDMA equipment in an interactive cable television experiment in Orlando, FL. Pioneer CDMA-equipment vendor Qualcomm Inc should profit from the new standard, and may license its technology to major cellular vendors Northern Telecom and Motorola. Leading cellular service provider McCaw Cellular Communications Inc and its equipment supplier Ericsson prefer simpler time division multiple access (TDMA) technology to CDMA.

Radio & TV communications equipment, Standards, Cellular telephone services industry, Cellular telephone services, Standard, Standardization, Cellular telephone equipment industry, Cellular Radio, Time Division Multiplexing, Telecommunications Industry Association

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Coming: telephone calls that follow you around

Article Abstract:

A new technology referred to as personal communications networks/personal communications services (PCN/PCS) is evolving into existence that has a potential to overshadow the $6 billion a year cellular-telephone market. A PCN/PCS system could revolutionize telecommunications by providing numbers to individual users rather than to telephones. In other words, people would be assigned a telephone number much as they are now assigned a Social Security number. Satellite-based networks could locate a person anywhere in the world. A variation on the technology suggests arrangements that would call for help in cases of heart attack, or for other emergencies. Much remains to be decided before PCN/PCS systems become a reality. For example, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) must decide how to assign electromagnetic spectrum for such services.

United States. Federal Communications Commission, Wireless LANs, Science and technology policy, Telephone systems, Radiotelephones, Telephone System, Wireless Network

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