2001 Annual General Meeting of the PHS MoU Group was held on June 21 in Singapore at International Convention and Exhibition Center, where the GroupOs Inaugural General Meeting was convened five years ago. From Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore and the U.S., more than 60 members were present and Mr. Nobuhiro Horisaki, Chairman of the PHS MoU Group, presided (chaired) over the meeting.

Followed by the Chairman's opening speech (declaration), Mr. Toru Ohnishi, First Secretary of the Embassy of Japan in Singapore gave a guest speech as quoted at the end of this article. Finally, Mr. Horisaki introduced a newly joined PHS MoU Group signatory member, Acer NeWeb Corporation (ANC), as follows.

Acer NeWeb Corporation, a member of Acer Group, is a manufacturer of advanced wireless communications products such as PCS (Personal Communications System) handsets based on PHS technology. Acer Group is the third largest PC components manufacturer in the world.


[Activity Report]
At the beginning of the session, Mr. Masaaki Hirose, Secretary-General of the PHS MoU Group, made an overall activity report of the Group in FY2000, noting that in July 2000, Mr. Nobuhiro Horisaki, the third PHS MoU Group Chairman, assumed the responsibilities of the former Chairman Mr. Hitomi Murakami and Mr. Masayoshi Wakao was reelected, on the other hand Dr. Sam Endy was newly elected as Vice-Chairman respectively.

After the overall activity report, the following respective WG activities were reported.
Mr. Takao Kashiwamura, Technical WG (TWG) Chairman, reported that the Technical Information documents (TIs) concerning the PHS supplementary services has been issued.
Mr. Fumio Uno, the Promotion WG (PWG) Chairman, reported on information provision situation via the Group website (http://www.phsmou.org) as well as the PHS MoU Group News.

  Since the Business WG (BWG) Acting Chairman and the Next-Generation PHS Study WG (NWG) Chairman Mr. Mitsuaki Ishikura resigned the posts last December, the Secretariat explained the deliberations results concerning the need for technical information provision for the PHS supplementary services as regards the BWG while reporting that a study report OPHS evolution 2001O (provisional version) concerning the Next-Generation PHS concept and services, etc. had been prepared as regards the NWG.
After the General Meeting, PHS Seminar and Panel Discussion were held as below.


[PHS Seminar]

1.    "New Public PHS Service in Taiwan" by Dr. Han-Binn Chuang, Network Business Div., Vice President of First International TELecom Corp. (FITEL)
   FITEL has been so popular as to gain 25,000 subscribers in three weeks' time since launching the PHS service in Taipei area. In particular, "MiMi Thumb Information and Thumb Mail" as well as OWiWi Web SurfingO services using 64kbit/s PHS high-speed data transmission function are going strong, more than half of the subscribers are making use of this service in addition to the voice service. For MiMi service, over 30 content providers are offering over 120 types of content (see PHS MoU Group News No. 29 and 33). officially declared the launch of the PHS service





2.    "Latest PHS Service and Deployment of the PHS Technology" by Mr. Yoshiki Chika, General Manager of Engineering Planning Dept., DDI POCKET Inc.
     The company started offering packet-type data communications service Air HO nationwide in Japan from early June. With this service, it is possible to switch automatically between 64kbit/s PIAFS and 32kbit/s packet communications without cutting off the connection through use of the flex-change method that fully exploits the respective merits of the two methods. With this, the Internet can be enjoyed at a lower cost compared with the cellular phones.
   Furthermore, deliberations are under way for the PHS speed enhancement technology enabling a maximum of 1Mbit/s high-speed data communications by the Advanced PHS Committee , subordinate of the Telecommunications Council (an advisory body to the Japanese government comprising opinion leaders).
   This reference information can be accessed at the Group website.





3.    "Lucent PHS System" by Dr. Susan S. J. Lee, Technical Staff of Wireless Switching, Bell Labs Innovations, Lucent Technologies Inc.
   The Lucent PHS system is based on conventional 5ESS type Switch having PSTN/ISDN functions to allow for convergence of the PHS functions to enable a capacity of up to 400,000 Personal Stations (PSs).
   It equips a Remote Access Interface Unit (RAIU) with 2B+D interface for the PHS allowing an installation of the Cell Station (CS) as far as 250km away, a CS Maintenance System capable of managing a maximum of 256 CSs, a Value Added Server for Prepaid Phone Service and Short Message Service, etc.
   In addition, various CSs with transmission power of 500mW, 300mW and 20mW are also available.





4.    "Deployment of the PHS Systems" by Mr. Paul Berkowitz, International Sales, Vice President of UTStarcom, Inc.
   The UTStarcom's PHS system "PAS (Personal Access System)" has been deployed in China in large numbers, but there is an effort now to expand it into the countries other than China. Offices are to be founded in Taipei, Manila, New Delhi and Miami among other locations around the world. Outside of main land China, the recently-opened Taipei PHS system was deployed in a short period of time while adding value-added service such as MiMi. The newest customer, the Haitian phone company, currently is starting commercial sales, with 100,000 subscriptions for the first phase. Other than this, market operations are being pushed forward aggressively in markets such as India, Bangladesh, USA, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam.