There are 2.3 million ready to subscribe to PCN trumpets the Unitel Ltd Personal Communications Network consortium in its latest in-house publication. Which looks pretty impressive until you realise that the company did not include the UKP300 handset costs into its calculations of UK demand. The aim of the study was to determine what tariff levels customers would tolerate, according to the company, but nonetheless, giving triallists free handsets means that total figures must be consigned to pinch-of-salt land. Exact details of how the study was carried out remain confidential, but 400 people were given handsets that simulated a Personal Communications Net service by using existing analogue cellular services. Tariffs were set at a range between existing public switched telephone network tariffs and just below the cost of cellular calls, according to the company. At about mid-point, the company found that 41% of households surveyed were still using the service, and Unitel extrapolated from a similar study of potential customers in small businesses to establish a the 2.3m figure. If the Personal Communications Net market were a little more like the cellular one, it might be assumed that dealers would start offering substantial discounts on phones, but Unitel says that this is unlikely. It is going for the mass-market, which means slim margins for the service providers.
