The 2000 Annual General Meeting of PHS MoU Group Held in Singapore


MoU Chairman Murakami, with MoU Vice Chairmen and WG Chairmen

The 2000 Annual General Meeting of PHS MoU Group was held on June 7 in Singapore. This meeting took place at the International Convention and Exhibition Center, where the Group's Inaugural General Meeting was convened four years ago. About 60 PHS MoU Group members from China, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, the U.S. and other countries and areas participated in the meeting. The meeting also welcomed some guests, including Mr. Toru Onishi, First Secretary of the Embassy of Japan in Singapore, who gave a speech as the representative of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, Japan (see below).

Dr. Hitomi Murakami, PHS MoU Group Chairman, presided over the meeting. First of all, Dr. Murakami introduced new PHS MoU Group signatory members: First International Telecom Corporation (FITEL) from Taiwan and Xi'an Haitian Communication Equipment Co., Ltd. from China. FITEL won the PHS license this February and is now in the process of constructing the state-of-the-art PHS infrastructure. Xi'an Haitian Communication Equipment is manufacturing PHS antennas and providing them to many companies.

Participants intent upon taking in the presentation

Activity Report

Mr. Masaaki Hirose, Secretary General of PHS MoU Group, reported on the overall activity being carried out by the Group. Following this, Working Group (WG) Chairmen reported on their respective WG activities. On behalf of Mr. Mitsuaki Ishikura, Business WG (BWG) Vice-Chairman, who could not attend the meeting, the PHS MoU Group Secretariat explained the activities of BWG from the business standpoint concerning PHS-FWA system, private PHS system and new services. Special emphasis was placed during the explanation upon the activities related to the provision of interface protocol information, which is used in providing PHS supplementary services.

Following this, Mr. Fumio Uno, Promotion WG (PWG) Chairman, explained how information provision activities are being carried out through the Group's Website (http://www.phsmou.org) and the newsletter PHS MoU Group News, in addition to other media. He showed "PHS Today," the latest promotional video compiled by PWG, and reported on the Group's participation in CommunicAsia 2000, which was also under way in Singapore at that time.

On behalf of the Next Generation PHS Study WG (NWG), the Secretariat explained the specific activities that NWG would handle from now on. Mr. Takao Kashiwamura, Technical WG (TWG) Chairman, then reported that compilation of ISDN interface Technical Specifications (TS) for PHS-FWA system was completed and publication of Technical Information documents is planned in order to provide interface protocol information. At the end of this meeting, all participants applauded Dr. Murakami for his long-standing efforts; Dr. Murakami's term expired at the end of this June.

PHS Seminar

After the General Meeting, seminars were given by the following presenters regarding the introduction plan in Taiwan of public PHS service and the outlook for the development of PHS technology.

  1. "New Public PHS Service in Taiwan" by Dr. Hann-Bin Chuang, FITEL
  2. "PHS beyond 3G" by Mr. Yoshiki Chika, DDI Pocket Telephone, Inc.

Guest Speaker

Mr. Toru Onishi, First Secretary of the Embassy of Japan in Singapore

Mr. Onishi

Thank you, Chairman. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It's indeed a pleasure for me to have the opportunity to say a few words here at the 2000 Annual General Meeting of PHS MoU Group, representing the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of Japan, and the Embassy of Japan in Singapore. PHS service was first launched in Japan in 1995; as you know well, its subscriber record goes up and down rapidly. In the past several months, however, the subscriber's number has recorded upward, that was a second growth. And besides, better voice quality of PHS and seamless communications even in fast moving vehicle is guaranteed. Short message, location information and various other new services have been introduced there. Data transmission is one of the strengths of PHS. 64 kbit/s is already in commercial service, and it's said that 128 kbit/s service will be launched this year. PHS has attracted users as a personal mobile multimedia tool, and PHS subscribers will continue to grow. I personally think that PHS will be widely used together even with IMT-2000. I sincerely hope that this Annual General Meeting of PHS MoU Group will be successful and PHS technology will contribute to improving the communications environment in more countries through the cooperation of the PHS MoU Group members. Thank you very much.