Personal Digital Cellular is a Japanese mobile-phone standard from the 1990s. It carried voice as a digital signal over the existing cellular bands in Japan, and handsets on that standard were sold only for that market. The networks were later shut down as newer systems replaced them.
It is one national form of Second Generation (2G) mobile service. Other countries used other second-generation standards. A handset built for this one did not roam onto those networks.
What the Standard Specified
- A digital voice channel. Speech was coded and sent as bits, not as an analog signal.
- A Japanese band plan. The channels sat in the bands Japan had assigned.
- A closed market. Handsets and networks were built for that country.
This Standard and Later Japanese Systems
| Compared | This Standard | Later Systems |
| Era | Second-generation digital voice | Later generations |
| Where it worked | Japan | Wider roaming |
| Today | Networks shut down | In service |