Mobile Communications in the United States

Public enthusiasm for cellular and cordless telephones has stimulated widespread interest in new mobile services. However, the outlook for the future is clouded by technical and regulatory uncertainties. In some respects, Western Europe and the United States are moving in opposite directions. Europe, which now has five incompatible cellular systems, is converging toward one continental standard. Meanwhile, North American networks, which until now have operated with a single cellular standard, will be divided by three separate approaches to increasing capacity - time division, code division, and frequency division. Promoting alternatives to the present cellular networks, dozens of American companies have begun technical and marketing trials of personal communications. Although it remains to be seen which services and technologies will find commercial application, it is safe to predict that many new networks will emerge in the mid-1990´s. They will change substantially the way people communicate and will transform the structure of the telecommunications industry.