One per customer radio systems

The authors describe the work carried out at British Telecom Research Laboratories to define and prove the feasibility of an economic, single line, radio system. This one per customer, (1pC), radio system is primarily intended to be an alternative means of providing basic telephony service to customers who, typically, live in remote areas and, through their exposure to extremes of weather, can suffer a poorer quality of service due to the higher probability of failure of overhead telecommunication plant. They speculate however, that the ingenuity of those who actually build and maintain the local network may find other applications, some, perhaps, in more densely populated areas. They begin by outlining the geographic and demographic characteristics of the rural environment in the UK and the market 1pC addresses. They then review the various radio solutions for providing rural telecommunications before looking at some specific features of the 1pC system, and an outline design