Data services over cellular radio
Ian Harris · Institution of Engineering and Technology eBooks · 1994
The growth of cellular radio has enabled organisations to extend their everyday office based operations to the mobile environment. Inevitably, this has included data and facsimile. The problem with 'data' (excluding facsimile) is that there are too many standards to promote its widespread adoption even in the fixed networks. Although there has been some growth in electronic mail, its use is generally confined within a particular organisation. It is not surprising therefore that the use of 'data' in cellular environments is small. Other than speech, facsimile is the most commonly used method of communications worldwide. The reason for the success of facsimile is its ease of use, primarily because it is standardised as an end to end service. The cellular environment allows the use of facsimile machines at remote locations not served by telephone land lines. However, the performance of facsimile machines under certain conditions is unpredictable, both in the TACS and GSM environments, and in neither case is the attachment to a cellular telephone simple or cheap. However, the investment in facsimile is now so large that it seems unlikely that even the much needed promise of the ISDN to provide an alternative for national and international communications will make a significant penetration in the foreseeable future. Until there is an incentive to change attitudes towards data communications in the fixed network, it is unlikely that we shall see any significant growth in data communications in the cellular network. The use of data over cellular radio is likely to remain, therefore, confined to the specific needs of organisations and niche markets for a long time to come.