The paper describes the standardisation work being carried out in different regions for third generation mobile systems to provide personal communication services (PCS). The Future Public Land Mobile Telecommunication Systems, being defined in the ITU Forum and the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System, being defined in the ETSI, are referred to as third generation mobile systems. The satellite or satellite constellations will play a significant role in providing personal communication services on a global basis. Personal communications requirements are changing rapidly as our society becomes more mobile and the demand for near instantaneous communications and universal access increases. The second generation mobile systems are not able to meet the unending expectations of the subscribers in terms of the range of services, higher user information bit rates, support of video, quality of service etc. The aim of the PCS is to provide personalised voice, data, image, and video communication services that can be accessed regardless of the location, network and time. The PCS are a family of telecommunication services supporting personal, terminal and service mobility. To provide a PCS, one needs a network with the ability to route calls and services to the location where the subscribers actually are, not to the locations where the subscribers are registered. In addition, wherever the subscribers actually are, they should be able to access the same set of services as where they are registered. It means creating a virtual home environment concept, i.e. a system concept for service portability. Third generation mobile systems could be an effective means to help developing countries bridge the telecommunication gap.
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