North America is so enormous that when the idea of offering mobile phone service in metropolitan areas was first mooted, it was decided that each city should have just two operators, one of which would be the local land-based phone company, and the other franchise would be offered by separate lottery in each conurbation. It has taken a long time to sort out the chaotic patchwork that resulted – your friendly neighbourhood dentist or the opportunistic little old lady next door was as likely to win any franchise as a major phone company, but at last systems are coming into being to make roaming possible. The MobiLink consortium – which is offering a pan-American branded cellular service with consistent features – has begun offering its cellular service across the US and Canada, via licences with a series of cellular operators in the two countries. MobiLink customers can receive calls instantly in any metropolitan area where the brand is available: the companies claim the network covers 83% of the US and Canadian populations. The system is claimed to simplify dialling and access codes, as well as codes for custom calling features, making it much easier to use the service when travelling. Features of MobiLink include permissive dialling – the ability to make calls with or without an initial 1 – standardised feature codes for services such as roaming and call forwarding; and maintenance of a specified level of call quality (defined by the number of blocked or dropped calls). The group is positioning MobiLink as complementary to existing cellular services, and is particularly promoting the customer service angle. The companies are providing 24-hour customer service, with hundreds of service centres for installations and repairs. MobiLink, first announced in February, is the result of a partnership between AllTel Mobile Communications, Ameritech Mobile Communications, Bell Atlantic Mobile, BellSouth Mobility, Cellular Inc, Century Cellunet, GTE Corp’s GTE Mobilnet and Contel Cellular units, Nynex Corp’s Nynex Mobile Communications, PacTel Cellular, Rochester Telephone Co Inc’s Rochester Tel Mobile Communications, Southern New England Telecommunications Inc’s SNET Cellular, Sprint Cellular and US West Cellular. MobiLink will be offered in Canada by Mobility Canada, which operates Canada’s largest wireless network, marketed by 12 cellular service providers.
