The Second Annual PHS World Congress held in Bangkok, Thailand (18-20 November 1997).

This Congress was organized by IBC Asia Limited, one of leading international conference organizers. It was well attended by participants from over 20 countries. Major issues such as: PHS for international deployments, major technology developments, marketing/tarification and bundling strategies and new value added services were discussed.

It was yet another successful PHS World Congress featuring an impressive lineup of speakers, a high-level delegate profile, leading sponsors and leading manufacturers exhibiting the latest PHS products.
The Congress was held in Bangkok, where the second public mobile PHS service (known as PCT service based on PHS technology) has been introduced recently by Telecom Asia. PHS MoU Group officially supported the Congress. Representatives of PHS MoU Group presented as speakers and some companies also took part in the Congress as sponsors and as exhibitors.
The welcome address was given by Dr. Sukhanetr Sribhumi, President of the Telecommunications Association of Thailand (TCT) which was the local supporting organization and the key note address, by Mr. M. Wakao, Vice Chairman of PHS MoU Group.
The three day symposium was moderated by the following distinguished Chairmen: Mr. Surind Vanichseni (Acting Director, TCT); Mr. Andy Gent (Vice Chairman, PHS MoU Group and CEO, PHS International) and Mr. Brendan McManus (Chairman, The Australian PHS Forum). Forty experienced speakers from leading organizations gave interesting presentations on the many aspects of PHS technology, deployments, value-added services and marketing.

The first day of the Congress featured many comprehensive country activity reports, including Thailand, Indonesia, Europe, China, India, The Philippines, Hong Kong, Latin America, Australia and Japan. Distinguished speakers from the operator companies gave very thorough updates of their countries plans for PHS service implementation and services to be offered. Also, in regards to countries which have implemented PHS, delegates were given an in-depth discussion of the actual network planning, implementation and operational issues involved.
Asked about the slowing down in PHS subscribers recently in Japan, the PHS operators explained that the situation they found themselves in was a kind of recharging step before another surge, and also about the potential for growth with the steady increase in new subscribers.
On the second and third days, delegates were given first hand information about the latest PHS services, multimedia enhancements, handset (including dual mode handsets) developments, PHS-WLL deployments and PHS tarification and bundling strategies.