14th General Meeting of the PHS MoU Group and the seminar were held on July 25, 2002 at The Westin hotel in Taipei, Taiwan.

About 140 attendants, including guest from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications of Taiwan, representatives of each MoU member organization, and news media from 8 countries and areas were present. More media representatives attended this meeting than any past PHS MoU event, which is a result of the great support that FITEL (First International Telecom Corp.) provided. Many newspapers, such as "Digital Times," "Central News Agency," "The Great Daily," "CNET," "Economic Daily News" and so on published articles covering the meeting.

Before the opening of the General Meeting, the MoU secretariat reported the results of the prior inquiry on the election of both new a chairperson and vice-chairpersons and it was officially approved that Mr. Nobuhiro Horisaki, Mr. Masayoshi Wakao, and Dr. Sam Endy continue their previous responsibilities as a chairperson and vice-chairpersons, respectively.

The opening was followed by new chairperson Mr. Horisaki's inaugural address, as well as a congratulatory address by Dr. Kai-Sheng Kao, Deputy Director General, Directorate General of Telecommunications, Ministry of Transportation and Communications of Taiwan, which is quoted below.

Congratulatory address from telecommunications authority of Taiwan

Secondly, Mr. Charlie Wu, the president of FITEL (First International Telecom Corp.), made a welcome address as follows.

FITEL greatly supported the realization of the General Meeting in Taipei and sponsored an evening cocktail party after the seminar.

Welcome address from FITEL in Taiwan

Finally, the following opening address was made by Mr. Hong Liang Lu, the president of UTStarcom Inc., the largest PHS-related network vendor in the world.

Opening address from UTStarcom

At the beginning of the discussion, Mr. Sean Sugiura, Secretary General of the PHS MoU Group, introduced new Signatory Members: Seiko Instruments Inc., Miyoshi Electronics Corporation, and YOZAN Inc. of Japan, Zhejiang Huaneng Communication Development Co. of China, and a new Public Organization Member, National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC) of Thailand.

After that, the Group's activity reports were presented. The following are summaries and excerpts of the reports.

[Activity Report in General]
Regarding the Operators Committee established under the Steering Committee, the Secretary General reported that the first face-to-face meeting was held in the morning of the date of the General Meeting.
(Dr. Hann-Bin Chuang of FITEL was installed as the first formal chairperson of the Operators Committee.)

[Technical WG]
Mr. Takao Kashiwamura, the TWG chairperson, reported that PHS MoU Technical Specifications were posted on the PHS MoU Web site.

[Promotion WG]
Mr. Fumio Uno, the PWG chairperson, and Mr. Aaron Graham, the Website Management SWG (SWG4) chairperson, reported an opening of the website (http:// www.phsmou.org) showcase as well as the PHS MoU Group News posting on the website. Further, each MoU member was requested to provide information for the news.
All proposals including other items such as the budget were approved and the General Meeting went smoothly.

After the General Meeting, the following four seminars were held.

1) To build an advanced but cost effective mobile network, Taiwan's PHS experience
- Dr. Hann-Bin Chuang, Vice President of FITEL -

2) PHS service in India
- Mr. Paul Berkowitz, Vice President, Strategic Markets Sales of UTStarcom Inc. -

3) For the Explosion of Global PHS Market
- Mr. Yoshiki Chika, Director of DDI POCKET, Inc. -

4) Approach to Advanced PHS
- Mr. Yasunori Akatsuka, Manager of System Business Promotion Dept., SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. -

(Each seminar's details will be reported in the next issue of the PHS MoU Group News.)

After the seminar the cocktail party sponsored by FITEL was held. It was opened by Dr. Ming J. Chien's welcome speech and followed by a session for all attendees have discussions about PHS and interact with each other in a friendly atmosphere.

On the next day a visit to FITEL's operation center was held courtesy of FITEL. About 40 people heard presentations on the operation center from Mr. Colin Hsieh and Ms. Ruby Chang, who hosted the field trip.