GSM spreads back to Europe, U.S. PCS carriers move toward overseas roaming

One of the much-touted promises of PCS 1900, GSM's North American cousin, is that it will allow seamless roaming with GSM networks abundant throughout Europe. Omnipoint Communications and American Personal Communications are now taking the first steps toward making good on that promise.

Omnipoint has struck a deal with Swiss Telecom that will allow Omnipoint customers in New York to use GSM phones in Switzerland and be billed on their current statements. The same is true for Swiss Telecom customers roaming in New York.

Omnipoint is also talking with Vodafone of the U.K. for a similar deal and is determining connectivity with networks elsewhere.

"We've successfully tested with several countries, and we can deliver and receive calls abroad," said Martin Guilfoyle of Omnipoint.

APC, which operates a PCS 1900 system in the Washington/Baltimore region, has made similar arrangements with France Telecom. "We're using them for a signaling hub to Europe for international roaming," says Anne Schelle, APC's vice president of external affairs. "They allow us to connect to the European GSM nets to do [home location register] and [vehicle location register] hookups.

International roaming is likely to become a bigger issue as more PCS networks are deployed in the U.S. The prevalence of GSM in both Europe and the U.S. make the regions' logical proving grounds. The GSM North America forum has declared that the technology has established a national footprint in the U.S., with carriers that cover over 260 million pops now planning to deploy PCS 1900 systems.

To make overseas roaming possible, interworking units must be installed that allow communication between non-compatible U.S. and European signaling systems. Subscriber identity module cards are used to carry customers' profiles and service features.

Because the systems in the U.S. and Switzerland operate at different frequencies, customers who want to roam must borrow phones from their home provider.