The development of personal communications

The rapid development and take-up of personal communications services has been effected as much by marketing and regulatory changes as the introduction of second generation, digital technology. The traditional boundaries between fixed and mobile and between consumer and business services have been crossed. Increasingly, customers will be offered all their communication needs from a single supplier. This will lead to composite architectures formed from several networks. In the short term, dual-mode terminals will link networks based on cordless, cellular, satellite and fixed network technologies. As intelligent network techniques are used more fully, least-cost routing and consistent service features will be achieved. Third generation standards will extend the range of services, including those utilising higher speed data. These mobile systems will provide the primary access to the `Information Society'