Like Wireless Quiltwork

Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life.

As a PCS carrier, that day may be today or very soon. As dusk falls on 1996, several PCS offerings have been launched, and many more are nearly ready. Over the last year, PCS has gone from being a billion-dollar dream to being a real business with real networks and-in a handful of cases so far-real customers.

Carriers have bought licenses, chosen their technologies, sized up the competition and are building or have built their networks. They should be ready for action, no? Well, PCS is more than just a process of buying, building and strategizing.

To make PCS a business that fully interacts with competitors, partners and customers, carriers' organizations and networks need be interwoven with network management standards to make them seamless and efficient elements in the global quilt of communications networks. Our cover story in this issue examines why PCS carriers need to think about and understand the Telecommunications Management Network if they are to have long lives in PCS.

Living in a standardized world does not have to be boring. While weaving TMN principles into overall network strategies is critical, software-based services can provide true threads of color and distinction in what otherwise might be a commonly arranged pattern. To this end, we've put together a report on the emergence of software-based enhanced services.

This last PCS Edge of 1996 also includes a status report on the wireless industry's battle against fraud and a profile of one of the early leaders in PCS deployment: Western Wireless.

As mentioned, this is the last PCS Edge of the year. We set out back in March (March 4, to be exact) to provide in-depth coverage of PCS as it migrated from an auction of licenses to a sweeping wave of network and service investment that is changing the competitive face of the wireless industry.

If all your positive comments are any indication, we have done as much. But there is more yet to be done.

As TV's "The X-Files" tells us, "The truth is out there." There is so much more to this thing called PCS, and we plan to cover all points of interest as this phenomenon grows and merges with the already booming wireless industry.

The majority of PCS networks will launch during the next 12 months. Real competition between cellular incumbents and new PCS carriers will take shape, and that will give us all much to talk about in 1997. PCS Edge will appear with the Feb. 17, June 23, Aug. 18 and Nov. 17 issues of Telephony in 1997. We'll see you then.

Long live PCS.