High-end devices and services may draw flocks of end users, but the poor have more basic communications needs. The Personal Handyphone System is one service perfectly suited to economically meet basic wireless needs.
Born in Japan in the mid-1990s without fanfare or promise of world conquest, the technology is gaining momentum not only in the poorest nations in the world, but it also has begun to spread into the United States.
Its value appeal is not only for end users, but also for wireless players watching their purse strings.
“If you offer [service] on expensive spectrum bands, there will be too much money [spent] on the licenses,” remarked Howie Frisch, director of wireless product management for UTStarcom, which leads the world in providing PHS technology to carriers. The other major PHS equipment providers are ZTE Corp. and Lucent Technologies Inc.
From base stations to chipsets in handsets, the technology favors shallow wallets. That is why carriers and vendors have especially targeted rural markets for its implementation. Other than Japan, PHS is growing in China, Vietnam, India, Taiwan, and several countries in Africa and Latin America. Nigeria, Mali and Tanzania already are offering it in Africa, while Brazil, Honduras, Chile and Brazil have PHS in Latin America.
In the United States, the service is offered in New Mexico, South Dakota and Kansas. It is currently provided only in small towns, remarked Frisch, adding the technology is provided as PCS in rural areas.
“Rural areas are a lower income bracket, so it appeals to that geography,” remarked Alex Liu, business development manager at Atheros Communications, which specializes in wireless local area network chipsets. The chipmaker, however, has just unveiled a PHS chipset known as AR 1900 to boost the burgeoning humble market.
The company describes its products as the most integrated solution in the PHS space.
Part of the new appeal of this technology is that it has broken through the borders of rural markets and is flourishing in big cities in Asia, Latin America and Africa. In Japan alone, it enjoys up to 7 million subscribers, but in China, where UTStarcom does much of its business, it has garnered about 78 million subscribers.
PHS works in small cells, but enhancements in chips and base stations in recent years have allowed companies to multiply the cells in the cities, making the services possible.
In the United States, supporters of the technology are lobbying the government to clear part of the PCS spectrum for PHS, specifically the guard band between 1910 and 1915 MHz, remarked Frisch.
If the Federal Communications Commission auctions the band, the licenses will be inexpensive and allow carriers to deploy PHS service in U.S. cities nationwide. PHS operates in a number of bands between 1880 and 1930 MHz. Different countries use different bands. In China, PHS operates in the 1900 to 1920 MHz band. In Africa, it ranges from 1880 to 1900 MHz. Wireline players like China Netcom are offering PHS service using some of the spectrum with winks and nods from the Chinese government, according to market observers.
As the technology grows, market watchers think its potential is still enormous.
“Where it goes in the future is hard to say,” said Liu, playing up its advantages. “It is a robust technology with high quality,” he commented. “The protocol is simple to implement with great cost structure.”
Frisch explained that PHS’ voice quality is comparable with that offered in wireline voice service.
“The voice quality is better than GSM and CDMA,” said Frisch, adding that it guarantees 64 kilobits per second data transmission rates. Although CDMA offers 144 kbps, it normally gives end users about 20 kbps data rates. Because many PHS users have low incomes, they do not use data, and because they are mainly in low-density rural communities, the service puts little pressure on the networks.
However, Frisch said advanced PHS with 1 megabit per second data rates is already being offered.
In spite of the migration to third-generation technology in China and other developing countries, analysts think the cheap price model will give PHS enduring power.
