On December 18, the 6th General Meeting of the PHS MoU Group was held at the Toranomon Pastoral in Tokyo. A total of 64 member companies and organizations participated in the meeting.

Dr. Hitomi Murakami, Chairman of the PHS MoU Group, presided over the meeting. Mr. Seiji Tanaka, Director-General of the Radio Department at the Telecommunications Bureau of the MPT of Japan, first delivered a guest speech:
"I am pleased to know that the PHS MoU Group has been actively and cooperatively working toward its objective of introducing and deploying PHS systems on a worldwide basis. PHS subscribers in Japan have been declining since the end of last year, however, there are several indicators that tell us that this industry is on its road toward recovery. Demand for data communication has been rising, and is becoming an integral technology in the world of mobile computing. Call traffic has been growing, and the management strategy of the respective PHS operators is solidifying. MPT has and will continue to support PHS operations on the administrative side. The MPT will issue an ordinance on the enhancement of PHS by the end of this year. We believe this ordinance will be beneficial for the PHS operation. I hope that the new year will be a fruitful year for the PHS MoU Group"


NTT Mobile Communications Network Inc. (NTT DoCoMo), who has taken over the PHS operation of the former NTT Personal, was approved as a new member of the Steering Committee.

Mr.Yoshio Iwayama, Secretary General, reported the finalized special budget to cover expanded promotional activities in this fiscal year. . In this fiscal year, PR efforts, especially in relation to boosting publicity of PHS, is the primary activity for the PHS MoU Group. News and information on PHS continue to be posted on the frequently updated PHS MoU web site at, http://www.phsmou.org/.

Then followed the reporting of activities for the first half (July-December) of 1998 and an activity plan for the second half (January-June) 1999. An overall perspective on the various activities was presented by the Secretary General, and the chairman of each working group (WG) reported on the activities of their respective working groups: Mr. Takuo Kashiwamura; Technical WG, Mr. Shigeru Mori; Business WG, Mr. Yoji Naito; Promotion WG, and Mr. Mitsuaki Ishikura; Next Generation PHS Study WG.

The revisions that were made to the existing PHS MoU Technical Specifications, mainly pertaining to the network-network interface of the PHS-UUS (User-to-User Signal) Service, were approved. The revised version will be available to the public shortly

After the regular meeting, Mr. Mitsuaki Ishikura, Chairman of the NWG, presented their study report of the requirements, concept, positioning, network, etc. of the next generation PHS system. He actively solicited comments from the attending members as the NWG will be working on defining these issues the coming months.

Mr. David Nowicki, Vice Chairman of the PHS Forum of Americas (PFA), presented PFA's latest activities and market potential in Latin and North America.