(36)The quality of service from a PCS (personal cellular service) phone may fall behind that of existing cellular phones in its initial stages, but will improve significantly to surpass that of the current telecommunications systems, according to a report by a U.S. information and telecommunications consulting firm.
This glimpse of the expected difference between the quality offered by the two different telecommunications systems is based on a consumer survey of 500 cellular and PCS agencies in the United States.
The U.S., which began PCS services last year, uses a frequency similar to that of Korea.
(37)The study graded variables such as interruption during use, amount of noise, reproduction of original sound and service area. The points, ranging from excellent (1 point), good (2 points), fair (3 points), below average (4 points) and poor (5 points) were totaled and averaged.
Although the results revealed PCS had a crisper, clearer digital sound compared to regular hand phones, the overall quality of PCS was slightly lacking during its initial stages.
In March, 1996, cellular phones captured 2.36 points while the PCS did slightly worse with 2.56. Results improved slightly for both services in June with the cellular phone earning 2.33 and PCS 2.44. Nonetheless, while hand phones improved their ratings with 2.16, PCS widened the difference with 2.80.
(38)However, by September this year, PCS eclipsed cellular phones in overall quality with 2.14 points versus 2.21.
The survey results imply that the PCS's initially poor ratings reflect its network maturity, rather than wireless technology. Since the existing cellular phone companies had a headstart, they were able to achieve optimization in the number of its antennas.
With this in mind, some market watchers forecast that the domestic PCS industry will face a similar uphill battle in the initial stages of its operation until it optimizes its number of antennas.
(39)Nevertheless other industry experts claim the American example is not applicable to Korea due to differing circumstances.
``When PCS service formally begins next month, consumers can accurately assess the difference in quality between PCS and the existing cellular phones for themselves,'' a telecommunications officer said.