Africa Telecom 98, the telecommunication symposium and exhibition organized by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), and the biggest telecommunications event on the Africa continent, was held in Johannesburg, South Africa from May 4 to 9, 1998.

With teledensity in Africa averaging out at only 1.84%, tremendous investment in telecommunications is expected in order to meet the large demand for telephone service. According to one South African newspaper, “About $20 billion will have to be invested in the African telecommunications infrastructure during the next five years.” Additionally, many governments are considering privatising their networks as a means of pumping foreign currency into the communications backbone.
During the six days of Africa Telecom 98, nearly 20,000 people-including many telecommunication authorities-participated in the various events. To kick off the show, President Nelson Mandela of South Africa cut the ribbon and delivered an enthusiastic opening speech.
More than 300 companies exhibited their products and services in the hope of meeting the tremendous demand for telecommunications in Africa. PHS had a collaborative exhibition at the Japan pavilion.

FUJITSU LIMITED, HITACHI, LTD., Matsushita Communication Industrial Co., Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric Corp., NEC Corp., Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. and Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. exhibited the latest PHS terminals, PHS Cell Stations and PHS-WLL systems, etc. in the center of the Japan pavilion. New technology such as the smallest wristwatch type terminal and data transmission were demonstrated, attracting many visitors. Most visitors wanted to know when and where this equipment would be available.
As expected, due to the previous lack of promotion in Africa, our conclusion was that PHS is not widely understood in African telecommunications circles.
Given the huge potential for telecommunications infrastructure investment in the African continent, companies displaying competing technologies were also very active at the show. It appears that the biggest potential for PHS in this region is the WLL application. Already, PHS frequency has been allocated in some African countries, and governments in a number of countries have begun studying how to install PHS-WLL systems based on knowledge from existing and planned field trials.
With many PHS MoU Group companies now active in Africa, PHS is poised to continue growing and expanding across this exciting region.