HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC 1984-09-05 Discussion ItemFrom: BellSouth Mobility Inc
2030 Powers Ferry Road
Building 500
Atlanta, Ga. 30339
For Further Information Contact:
Ken Willis (office) 404-951-7334
(home) 404-377-2539
(mobile) 404-372-0036
Wayne DuBois (office) 404-951-7310
(home) 404-587-3371
(mobile) 404-372-0034
BACKGROUNDER ON MIAMI CELLULAR MOBILE TELEPHONE SERVICE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: After 10 a.m., Wednesday, Sept. 5, 1984
MIAMI, FLA.--South Florida during Memorial Day weekend
became the first metropolitan area in the Southeast to have
cellular mobile telephone service when BellSouth Mobility Inc
(BMI) began commercial operation of its system.
The service has been as well received in the area as the
company had projected. "At the present rate of acceptance,
several thousand people in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale will be using our
service by the end of the year," said BMI President Robert L.
Tonsfeldt .
"The cellular mobile telephone is becoming a critical and
commonplace business tool," he said.
BMI has predicted that 40,000 people in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale
will be using cellular service provided by BMI or its competitor
within a few years.
In addition, the company received Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) to build a system in West Palm Beach.
Approximately 10,000 cellular customers are expected there within
a few years.
�jSCUSsiON
eoz
-MORE- ..,,�,•!�,,..
When that system is complete, and the FCC has given final
operating approval, it will interconnect with BMI's existing
Miami/Ft. Lauderdale system. Customers in both metropolitan
areas Will be able to use their cellular telephones continously
within the 90 miles stretching from Juno Beach to Cutler Ridge.
Cellular service is a vastly improved method of providing
mobile communications comparable in quality to traditional
telephone service.
A major advantage is that customers are able to complete
their calls without the delay often found with existing mobile
telephone systems.
Current mobile telephone systems use a single, high-powered base
station to serve an entire city. Only one call can be handled on
each mobile radio channel at a time. The channels cannot be used
simultaneously in the same city because the powerful signals would
interfere with each other.
With cellular technology, a city is divided into several cells,
each served by a low -powered transmitter, receiver and control system
that links it to a central computer and the traditional telephone
network.
Each cell is allocated a set of frequencies, with neighboring
cells assigned different frequencies. Cells sufficiently far apart
can use the same frequencies at the same time since the transmitters
are low -powered and the radio waves don't interfere with each other.
As a result, the capacity of the system to handle simultaneous calls
is greatly increased and can be easily expanded.
WNW
3 - 0
As a vehicle moves from cell to cell, computerized
electronic equipment transfers, or "hands off," the call to another
cell site. Since the hand-off takes only a fraction of a second, it
is virtually unnoticed.
- END -