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#Written by David Tam, 1996. #
#davidkftam@netscape.net Copyright 1999#
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David Tam
Tuesday, September 17, 1996.
Business Press Review
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Feschuk, Scott. "Next generation portable phone coming". The Globe and Mail.
Saturday, September 14, 1996. B3. ------------------
With the emergence of PCS technology -- personal communications services --
comes the emergence of new business opportunities and new markets. PCS is
considered the next generation in portable phone technology because its service
is cheaper than cellular phone technology (10 - 40% less), and it allows for
internet access, faxing, electronic organization, emailing, paging, voice-mail,
call forwarding, call display, etc...
Microcell Telecommunications Inc., a Montreal-based company, is in the
position of becoming the first company to offer PCS service to the Canadian
market. They plan to offer service to the Montreal area within a few weeks,
followed by Ottawa and Quebec City in March, and Toronto and Vancouver a few
months after that.
Being the first company to offer such a service to the newly created market
will give the company an advantage in grabbing the majority of the market
share, as well as establishing a reputation of being the pioneers of the
market. With these advantages in mind, Microcell expects to service two-thirds
the Canadian market by the end of 1998. However, some disadvantages are
present. Since they will be the first out on the market they will be under
close scrutiny by the competition, and they will have the unfortunate
opportunities of making the first mistakes.
PCS licenses were granted to four companies by Industry Canada last
December. The other competitors include Clearnet PCS Inc., Rogers Cantel
Mobile Communications Inc., and Mobility Personacom Canada Ltd. None of the
competitors are close to a launching date of their services. This means that
Microcell may be without competition for a year or more.
These companies believe this technology is for the mass consumer market.
They even hope it can compete with home phone service because the service is
cheaper than cellular technology (only 10% of Canadians have cellular phones)
and it offers an all-in-one solution. The concept will likely be a key to its
success. This technology also looks very attractive to businesses because of
its complete integration. Like the initial cellular phone market, this service
should be immediately attractive to business people who are on the move. Soon,
there will no longer be the need to carry a pager, a cell phone, an electronic
organizer, a laptop, and a laptop modem. However, the initial cost of PCS
equipment is likely to be quite expensive.
(
geocities.com/siliconvalley/campus/9640/2ndYear) (
geocities.com/siliconvalley/campus/9640) (
geocities.com/siliconvalley/campus) (
geocities.com/siliconvalley)