On July 14, the 1999 Annual General Meeting of the PHS MoU Group was held at the Toranomon Pastoral Hotel in Tokyo. A total of 78 delegates from Australia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Britain, the US and Japan participated.

Dr. Hitomi Murakami, Chairman of the PHS MoU Group, presided over the meeting. Two guests from the telecommunication authorities delivered speeches. First, Mr. Ishihara, Director-General of the Radio Department at the Telecommunications Bureau of the MPT of Japan spoke, an excerpt of the speech being provided below:

'I was recently appointed to this position and 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. I was told that PHS is deployed in more than 20 countries as WLL and as digital cordless telephone systems as well as a public service.
In Japan, we have about 5.7 million PHS subscribers. Though it was on the decline, there are several indicators that tell us that the PHS industry is heading toward another increase. Its data communication volume has been growing, and is establishing solid footsteps in the mobile multimedia area.
MPT has and will continue to support PHS operations on the administrative side. MPT issued an ordinance on the enhancement of PHS, including adaptive array antenna, portable repeater, etc. IMT-2000 is one of the hotly discussed subjects as the next-generation mobile communication system. We are fully aware of the enhancement of PHS toward the next stage, in conformity with IMT-2000. I hope that the PHS MoU Group will continue its activities for this fiscal year successfully".

The other speech was given by Mr. Ranchmat Widayana, Director, Directorate General of Posts and Telecommunication, Indonesia, which is as follows:

In 1997, the Indonesian Government had issued operation licenses for PHS telecommunication service to two operators. In 1998, three new operation licenses were given to new operators. The licenses were issued regionally, consequently there will be only one PHS operator in each region. Therefore, cooperation among operators and roaming is definitely needed.
The government of Indonesia, represented here by Directorate General of Posts and Telecommunication (hereinafter referred to as DGPT), is very concerned and will support every effort by the operators or other related party to ensure that PHS telecommunication starts up, survives the market and serves the community widely in Indonesia.
Regulations concerning PHS tariff structure, frequency allocation, technology standardization and interconnection with cellular operators or fixed telecommunication operators have been put in place.
The macroeconomic, monetary and political conditions have influenced the purchasing power of the customer and the investment feasibility in PHS telecommunication systems.
The successful 1999 General Election condition will be very helpful in supporting the development of telecommunication in Indonesia, especially that based on the PHS.
Today, the government has been preparing the finalization of the revision of the 1989 Telecommunications Act. The new Telecommunications Act will make telecommunication industry more free and competitive while being able to cooperate with foreign partners. Hopefully, infrastructure development will proceed much faster, together with better telecommunication service and optimum usage of telecommunication facility.
Given this precious opportunity, I as a representative of the Indonesian Telecommunication Authority, invite all PHS MoU Member and other relevant party who would like to work together with the Japanese Government, as represented by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunication (MPT), to support and develop PHS outside of Japan, especially in our country, Indonesia.
We have adopted PHS technology since 1996; however, until now we have several potential problems, such as PHS technology support in the future, solution in purchasing of PHS equipment system, the openness of standardization of PHS protocol outside Japan, the possibility of investment participation, know-how support, etc.
Along with us, herewith also present, are PHS operators and manufacturers represented in the Indonesian PHS Forum who would like to hear positive opinion and commitment from our Japanese partners, the PHS MoU Group and MPT, as well as directly from respective vendor and manufacturer.
DGPT, Indonesia was unanimously welcomed as a telecommunication authority member. PT. Jaya Telsarna Intisel located in Jakarta, Indonesia was approved as a new signatory member. A total of 11 organizations, including Patria Caraka Nusantara Konsorsium of Indonesia, were approved as observer members.
PHS MoU Group has 66 members as of July 14, 1999.

Signatory Members 48
Telecommunication Authority Members 4
Public Organization Members 3
Observer Members 11
Total 66

WG activities

Following the overall perspective on the various activities by Mr. Yoshio Iwayama, the Secretary General, each working group (WG) chairman reported on its activities, namely Mr. Takuo Kashiwamura of Technical WG, Mr. Fumio Uno of Promotion WG, as well as Mr. Mitsuaki Ishikura of Next-Generation PHS Study WG and of Business WG.

The Technical WG completed the following seven TSs which will be available as public document from the secretariat of PHS MoU Group.

Specification No. Title
A-GN1.00-04-TS Glossary and abbreviations
A-GN3.00-01-TS Extension of frequency band allocation for PHS
B-IF3.51-01.-TS Network - network interface for call control; PHS - UUS supplementary service
B-IF1.01-02-TS Specification of interface between PS and public CS (common air interface)
B-IF1.51-02-TS Common air interface specifications; PHS user-to-user signaling
B-IF2.01-03-TS Interface between public CS and ISDN-based PHS switching center - PHS service control procedure
B-IF2.51-02-TS Public CS - ISDN interface; PHS - UUS supplementary service

The Technical WG announced the following study projects during this fiscal year.

- ISDN interface for PHS WLL system
- A study on necessary technical activities for private PHS
- PHS spectrum and out-of-band emission from PHS carrier in 1910MHz ~ 1930MHz frequency band

The Business WG has worked mainly in the three fields of PHS-WLL, private PHS and new public PHS services, and will continue to do so for this fiscal year as well. The WG completed a study report on the market research and forecast of PHS, and distributed it to the members.

The Promotion WG has done the expanded promotion activities based on the special budget. The WG has provided various information on PHS, especially via the website. The WG will continue the similar activities in this fiscal year also.

The Next-Generation PHS Study WG has completed the interim study report on the subject, and will continue the study this fiscal year as it is an important subject for the deployment of PHS.

Budget and other proposed agenda were unanimously approved. Lastly, Dr. Murakami, Chairman, announced that the current Secretary General, Mr. Yoshio Iwayama, will be succeeded by Mr. Masaaki Hirose.

This concluded the Annual General Meeting.

PHS Seminar

First, Mr. Katsuya Watanabe, Director of Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of Japan, delivered the keynote address. Mr. Takeshi Okada, President of DDI Tokyo Pocket Telephone, Inc. lectured on "PHS is Ready for the 21st Century"; and Mr. F. X. Soehartono, President of PT. Indoprima Mikroselindo, spoke on "The Indonesian PHS Forum Activities and PHS Business Position in Indonesia."; Then, the seminar was closed by the closing speech by Mr. Masayoshi Wakao, Vice-Chairman of PHS MoU Group. Following is excerpt of the presentation by Mr. Takeshi Okada.

"PHS is Ready for the 21st Century"; presented by Mr. Takeshi Okada
DDI Pocket group provides PHS services by nine regional operators nationwide. Our coverage is 1,571 cities by 124,000 CSs, by which we cover nearly 90% of the population.

At one time the mass media was reporting that the PHS business was suffering greatly from losses and that PHS was living on "borrowed"; time. First, let me introduce an actual example. Under average circumstances, there are several mobile operators in each region in Japan Ñ three PHS operators and three cellular operators. Competition is very tough among the operators.
In the Tohoku region, located to the north of Tokyo, there are six operators. Fiscal year 1997 saw only two operators achieving profits: one being NTT DoCoMo in cellular and the other being DDI Pocket in PHS. The remaining operators, including two involved in the cellular system, recorded losses. It was a typical example that neither cellular means profitable business nor PHS means unprofitable. I believe that PHS has a sufficient potentiality to become a profitable business.
In the competition with the cellular system, our strategy is to provide similar service and satisfaction to our users. We have placed our utmost efforts to provide (1) larger coverage, (2) higher mobility, and (3) high-speed data communication. We have just launched a new service of seamless handover for higher mobility.
We are still developing new applications based on this strategy. One is a CS with the higher 2W output power using 8 antennas, 5 ~ 10 times higher than the current CS. Making use of this CS, we want to cover a resort or skiing area located far off in the mountains.


We are also testing to provide more mobility even on highways and on "bullet"; trains. We have obtained satisfactory results as to uninterrupted communication with a car proceeding on a highway at 100km/h (Refer to the article on page 5).
Data transmission is one of the advantageous features of PHS. We have launched various services. Visual phone, Tegacky (a popular touch-pen entry PHS phone by Toshiba) and other new terminals have also been released.
We will launch 64kbit/s data transmission service in July 1999. And we want to launch 128kbit/s data service around the year 2000. We expect various applications, even for indoor systems.
Our goal for the year 2000 is to provide more satisfaction than cellular in each item of coverage, mobility, voice quality and data. I have full confidence in the growth potentiality of PHS in the 21st century.

Exhibition