The early performance of PCS Has it lived up to its billing?

The personal communication services industry celebrated its first birthday in a big way last week.

One year to the day of the nation's first 1.9 GHz digital network launch, PrimeCo Personal Communications did what many said couldn't be done by making code division multiple access (CDMA) technology a commercial reality (see story on page 6).

Meanwhile, GSM's U.S. cousin, PCS 1900, has been making considerable headway since American Personal Communications turned up service in the Washington, D.C./Baltimore region. With the addition of PrimeCo's 15 markets, some format of PCS is now available in more than 60 U.S. cities (see sidebar).

The first year of existence for what has been termed the next generation of wireless service has been, if nothing else, educational for service providers and network equipment suppliers. Much of its development has been structured around avoiding past missteps, said one industry analyst.

"Based on the initial launches, PCS has clearly learned from issues related to cellular," said Spencer Stern, a consultant at OmniTech, Bridgewater, N.J.

He pointed to problems such as confusing billing, sub-par voice quality, fraud and churn that have plagued the cellular industry. "PCS players have a big advantage in that someone else made those mistakes first.

The PCS marketers have hyped features of their service not available with analog cellular, including caller ID, authentication and short text messaging. Despite those additional features, lower price remains the first feature customers seek-at least initially, Stern said.

"Even though the service is clearly better, [PCS providers] still feel the need to price it lower than cellular," he said. "In order to get customers to experience the difference, they need to be hooked in on price. Customers can't fully differentiate between analog and digital until they have experienced it first-hand.

As for handset giveaways touted by cellular carriers, the PCS retort is that discriminating cellular customers usually end up paying for higher-quality handsets. In general, there appear to be payoffs on both sides of the cellular/PCS fence.

But more than anything else, PCS in its first year has been characterized by an incessant debate over air interface standards-standards that everyone denies are rivals, yet everyone continues to squabble over.

With CDMA service now available to the masses, it remains to be seen whether the PrimeCo launch-and other major CDMA rollouts slated this year-will validate the technology in the eyes of those who have long disparaged it. Likewise, reports from markets where PCS 1900 service is available have ranged from very favorable to very poor.

Until now, those arguments have essentially been rhetorical, but with systems based on both technologies wide open for real-world experiences, the test has begun.

"What really matters is what happens out in the market," said Ira Brodsky, president of Datacomm Research.

NAVIGATING THE INFOSTREAM Western Wireless has launched a wireless data service called InfoStream that allows users to send faxes and e-mail, as well as access databases and the Internet using a VoiceStream phone. The phones connect to a data card in a laptop computer and function at data speeds up to 9.6 kb/s.

PAC BELL CONSULTS ORACLE Pacific Bell Mobile Services is using the Oracle7 database server, Oracle WebServer, Designer/2000 development kit and Oracle Applications financial and manufacturing modules to implement billing, customer service, inventory and other functions for its PCS offering in San Diego.

METRICOM MARCHES INTO D.C. Wireless data provider Metricom Inc. has launched its Ricochet spread spectrum packet radio network for Internet and dial-up data applications in Washington, D.C., and Montgomery County, Md. The network is offered through a joint venture with PepData Inc., an affiliate of the Potomac Electric Power Co.