Personal communications-service concepts and functionality evolution

Personal communications systems provide flexibility to telecommunications subscribers by offering both terminal and personal mobility. Terminal mobility can be achieved by a lightweight cordless terminal that a subscriber can carry everywhere. The personal mobility allows subscribers ubiquitous access to all subscribed services, and flexible billing for various types of usage (e.g., business, personal). Personal mobility is currently available for outgoing calls with various telephone calling cards. For incoming calls, several telephone companies are offering call forwarding feature. A new concept of assigning a personal telecommunication number (PTN) to a subscriber that can be resident in a database of the intelligent network (IN), is being considered by service providers globally. The PTN will facilitate access to subscribed services and the location of the subscriber. The Universal Personal Telecommunications (UPT) is a PTN based service which is similar to Freephone except for charging aspects, in that, the caller may pay for all or part of the call.<>