Word: wireless
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...over to industry for cell-phone service--at a price. The government collected $20.3 billion in granting PCS licenses for nearly 500 markets from New York City to Liberal, Kansas. Michael Elling, an analyst for Prudential Securities, estimates that PCS systems will create a 15-fold increase in wireless capacity within three to five years...
...means more than the addition of new frequencies to the wireless spectrum. Unlike many older systems, which send a voice in a single stream as analog waves, PCS uses digital signals that break sound into discrete bits--the 1s and 0s that run computers. Digital technology enables PCS to offer such features as E-mail, caller ID and paging as well as compact-disc-quality sound and greater security from wireless eavesdroppers and phone-number thieves. (Digital technology is also becoming available in non-PCS formats...
While PCS is still an infant, with barely a 1% share of the wireless market, it sets the pace in pricing. In Washington, where PCS newcomer American Personal Communications took on the entrenched CellularOne and BellAtlantic Nynex last year, the average charge for wireless service has dropped from 45[cents] a minute to just 30[cents]. Contemplating the establishment of PCS systems across the country, Peter Nighswander of the Strategis Group, based in Washington, estimates that the number of subscribers will grow from about 350,000 today to 47 million...
...promising--or threatening--is PCS that behemoths from AT&T to the Baby Bells are furiously overlaying their analog systems with digital networks to compete with upstart carriers. That creates more confusion as companies like AT&T, the largest wireless outfit in the country with some 7 million subscribers, offer both digital and analog service along with the corresponding handsets...
...untangle this array of choices? First, by deciding what you want a wireless phone for and how often you will use it. For people who are likely to spend fewer than 100 minutes in over-the-air yakking, a basic plan with few bells and whistles should be adequate. And the choice between digital and analog? "For most people, analog works fine," says Ken Woo, a communications manager for AT&T. "It's pure telephone." But for business customers, who account for roughly half of all wireless usage, PCS services such as E-mail may look particularly appealing...