The generation game-a view of the future of personal communications

This paper identifies many new exciting capabilities that are promised for the next generation of personal communications. This must be market led, with an efficient use of scarce spectrum, otherwise there may be bewildering anarchy, or else just failure! There must be a distinct differentiation between generations but the present investment in second generation systems is so vast that a clear evolution policy must be provided. GSM was developed as a European digital cellular radio standard but is now in hugely successful commercial operation with over 12 million users in over 70 countries around the world. It supports a range of data services although the main application by far is still telephony. The third generation has to support all existing uses of personal telecommunications plus something more, otherwise we would just be creating a different second generation system