COM JAPAN 1998, a joint exhibition of the communication and information technology industries, was held in the Tokyo Ariake Big-Sight on November 10 through 13, 1998. In the past years, the Communication Industries Association of Japan (CIAJ), Japan Electronic Industries Development Association (JEIDA), and Japan Personal Software Association (JPSA) each held independent exhibit events for their respective business industries. However last year, in accordance with the trend of integration, they merged the three separate exhibitions and held the first integrated exhibition, COM JAPAN 1997, which yielded great success. This year's exhibition was the second one to be held in last year's tradition.


Under the event concept, "21-century will come, sooner than tomorrow," 351 companies/organizations gathered to showcase their latest technology, equipment, solution systems, etc. The show was a great success, attracting more than 180,000 visitors during the four-day exhibition.
Some of the hot items featured at the show were; Year 2000-related software in addition to the latest in computer technology, computer telephony, W-CDMA, cdmaOne and other latest technologies in mobile communication, and multi-media related equipment.


Mobile computing related equipment and software were shown at the joint exhibit booth of the Mobile Computing Promotion Consortium (MCPC). PIAF (PHS Internet Access Forum) was the key exhibitor of the 64kbit/s service, which they demonstrated at their booth. Other PHS services such as location information service, vending machine monitoring, and image transmission, were among many other PHS applications that were exhibited at the show.

PHS operators demonstrated the up and coming 64kbit/s service they will commercialize. This exhibit attracted great interest among avid internet users. Operators also showcased their PHS handsets that continue to evolve in order to support increasingly attractive and convenient features. DDI Pocket exhibited two new handsets compatible with their "P-Mail DX (Deluxe)" service; one is a handset which enables transmission of up to 1,000 characters, and the other one is a compact data transmission terminal that is as small as a pager.

CIAJ, the organization coordinating the standardization of the digital cordless handsets' key operation in order to promote compatibility and demand, exhibited its plan and progress.
The visitors' interest and response to COM JAPAN 1998 indicates that the demands and applications for PHS data transmission has a firm ground to expand upon in the imminent age of high speed data transmission.