Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!westmark.UUCP!dave
From: dave@westmark.UUCP (Dave Levenson)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Continuously ringing telephone (on VHF)
Summary: IMTS: Still Alive & Well
Message-ID: <171@westmark.UUCP>
Date: 19 May 88 04:10:02 GMT
References: <8805111234.AA29347@NADC.ARPA>
Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU
Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA
Lines: 26
Approved: telecom@xx.lcs.mit.edu


In article <8805111234.AA29347@NADC.ARPA>, prindle@NADC.ARPA (Frank Prindle) writes:
...
> I've wondered what became of this service now that cellular is the standard.

The IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone Service) is still offered, and is
finally useable.  It used to be terribly over-crowded (in major
cities) because of the limited number of channels and large demand
for service.  Now that most users have gone to Cellular, the IMTS
channels are generally available.  The transmission quality is poor,
compared with the UHF Cellular service.

Why would anybody want it today?  Cellular serves most of the 300
largest cities.  It is now being deployed along the major corridors
between.  But for a lot of rural areas, small towns, and back roads,
Cellular is not available yet.  IMTS, for all of its technical
shortcomings, is mature, and serves a far larger area.  My partner
in Sussex County, NJ, still uses IMTS, because the local phone
company there (not NJ Bell) offers it.  Cellular hasn't arrived yet
in that corner of the state.

-- 
Dave Levenson
Westmark, Inc.		The Man in the Mooney
Warren, NJ USA
{rutgers | clyde | mtune | ihnp4}!westmark!dave