System attributes and evolution of personal communications systems

There has been a tremendous increase in interest in mobile communications over the past year, and a multitude of reports both in the general and the technical press about new initiatives and the shape that the industry is going to take. The authors gives a view of directions for the future, particularly with regard to the development of standards. The increased interest in mobile communications has created a number of challenges for the industry, which will see considerable changes over the next decade, and inevitably, will look very different in the year 2000 from the way it is today. For one thing, the present sharp division between mobile communications and fixed telecommunications is going to be eroded-not overnight, but the writing is on the wall. For another, the business is becoming not just European, but global. Organisations from all over the world have become interested in service provision and in equipment supply wherever an opportunity happens to arise. Again, the type of user is going to change