The reason we call everything "cellular" is that personal wireless services tend to operate on a cellular concept. As a mobile called passes from one cell site's service area to the next cell site's service area, the call is "handed off" from one transceiver to another. These overlapping calls ensure that a caller never gets dropped ... at least in theory.

Cellular, PCS, ESMR (Enhanced Special Mobile Radio) operate on the cellular concept. Paging and SMR (Special Mobile Radio) have fixed service areas. When a user moves outside one fixed service area, they must use another service area. But SMR and paging signals are not handed off from one cell to another.

Once all the cells covering an area are established, a carrier's network deployment is only beginning. The next cell sites are smaller areas, splitting the old cell in two (or three or four ___. When cell sites finally enter residential neighborhoods, there will need to be a personal wireless service facility every block.

These will not be "towers."

Cells are designed for mobility: a call is "handed off" from one cell to another as the caller leaves one cell and enters another. However, when too many callers demand the use of one cell site, those callers who are connected first or who are closest to the cell site's antennas get priority. Callers who are late or at the edge of the cell site could get dropped or be denied access. This "over-demand" leads to the need for a new cell site which, when installed, will serve a smaller cell. Wireless carriers call this increased coverage, but it really is increased capacity.

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Kreines & Kreines, Inc.
58 Paseo Mirasol, Tiburon, CA 94920
Phone: (415) 435-9214
Fax: (415) 435-1522
e-mail: mail@planwireless.com