Network evolution to support personal communications services

Personal communications services (PCS) are a set of capabilities that allow terminal mobility, personal mobility, and service mobility. The PCS concept is part of such initiatives as universal personal telecommunications (UPT) promoted by standards bodes. PCS is generally segmented into low tier and high tier services, significantly lower in cost than today's cellular service, providing significantly more mobility than today's landline service, and having voice quality and feature sets similar to today's landline service. The paper addresses how communications networks may evolve in supporting the vision of personal communications networks (PCN) which is to create a single seamless network to provide services associated with a mobile individual or a personal identifier, and not simply a terminal. Specifically addressed are the evolution of two of the most common networks in the United States-the cellular and landline networks. Discussed are several new technologies that facilitate the creation of a PCN, among the most important are: SS7 signaling, intelligent network, digital switching, digital radio, portable terminal and operations support technologies. Also addressed is an evolution of wireless communications to broadband networks.