FCC OKs Rules for New Wave of Personal Communicators

As Congress debated how to give Americans access to advanced telecommunications, federal regulators Thursday cleared the way for a new generation of portable devices that might one day serve as phone, fax and pager in one.

The Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously to finalize its rules for deploying so-called narrow-band personal communications services, a technology the agency said will “contribute to the development of the national information infrastructure.”

The FCC said these services, initially limited to paging and data messaging, could be launched as early as September. But experts consider this the most primitive of a family of emerging wireless technologies that will eventually allow users to send and receive video, voice and computer data from the gadgets that are as portable as a wristwatch.

Meanwhile, narrow band PCS could be a boon for the estimated 14 million people who now use pagers or mobile data services, experts say. And it would be an important first step toward a system of go-anywhere communications--available as early as next year--in which users would jettison separate work, cellular and home phones in favor of a single device and phone number they could carry with them.

The decision to launch PCS came as the House telecommunications and finance subcommittee heard testimony about ways to ensure universal access to the emerging information highway.

Several speakers said promoting competition would create more access to telecommunications services through lower prices. But Prof. Eli Noam of Columbia University urged lawmakers to set up a system of financial credits and debits to encourage providers to wire poor and rural areas as rapidly as wealthier communities.