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Wireless Wave of the Future II
Personal Communications Services are leading the next wave of wireless technology
Last month's column introduced personal communications service (PCS) to the pages of the Lane Report. Billed as the next big wave in the wireless communications future, PCS is the service that will allow the customer to use his or her handset not only to make and receive phone calls (incorporating services such as paging, voice mail, call waiting and call forwarding), but also to send and receive e-mail and surf the web. That column focused primarily on the technical capabilities of the new digital technology and their implications for business uses, and in general contrasted PCS with analog cellular technology. PCS will probably make cellular service as we know it obsolete one of these days, though the two technologies will undoubtedly coexist for a number of years.
This month, I'd like to focus on a few illustrative examples of the coming pervasiveness and competitiveness of PCS, as well as touch on a couple of aspects of the technology that may not be in the forefront of the public mind. For instance, you may be aware that one of the drawbacks to traveling with your cellular phone is the exorbitant "roaming" rates that you are charged. These rates are the results of deals that service providers make with one another to enable customers to use facilities in different locales. One of the selling points of PCS is its ubiquitous nature -- eventually it will, through the use of satellite technology, literally span the globe. Nextel Corporation, looking ahead to the implementation of its second generation digital technology at the end of this year, has already eliminated roaming charges for about 300,000 of its one million customers in 50 cities. By 1998, after sinking almost four billion dollars into its infrastructure, this one company will reach about 85% of the population of the United States.
Not all the participants in the race to provide PCS are newcomers to the field. US West Communications, considered one of the more innovative of the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), is not only going into the long distance business, but will be offering PCS in ten cities within the next five or six months that will give customers the option of high-speed digital access to the Internet rather than relying on the frustratingly slow analog twisted pair wire that nearly everyone now uses. Here in Kentucky, Sprint plans to introduce PCS to the Louisville area by midsummer, while AT&T plans a presence in the Cincinnati area by the end of the year.
Although we may not see PCS in the Bluegrass for some time, we will begin to enjoy the benefits of its anticipated arrival almost immediately. In an effort to build customer loyalty and preempt competition, BellSouth Mobility and Cellular One are offering new services and lowering prices, respectively. BellSouth is moving to a digital version of its cellular service that still makes use of the existing cellular frequency range, but will provide clearer and better service, as well as options such as voice mail and caller ID. Its major competitor, Cellular One, is trying harder from its second place status by offering a flat rate of $4.95 a month for unlimited long distance calls.
There are a couple of unanticipated benefits to PCS that may not have occurred to you yet. For those of you who have avoided using your cellular phone ever since House Speaker Newt Gingrich was captured on tape discussing ways to put a positive spin on his travails, you can rest assured that neither stock scanners from Radio Shack nor modified scanners will be able to pick up PCS telephone calls. On a final note, PCS may help to eliminate a problem that has already been encountered in the zoning-sensitive Bluegrass. Rather than the obtrusive, hilltop-located cellular towers that some find objectionable, PCS antennas are much smaller, though more numerous. They can be located on telephone poles and the tops of buildings -- and one company is even experimenting with hiding them behind billboards and disguising them as trees.