Asia Telecom is the largest telecommunications conference in the Asia-Pacific region to be held once every four years with the sponsorship of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) that may be, as such, called the regional Olympiad of telecommunications.

The Asia Telecom ’97, which was the fourth of these regular conferences, was hosted by the Telecommunication Authority of Singapore from 9 to 14 June at the World Trade Centre in Singapore.
At the conference, a joint exhibition of PHS was given by 13 companies including telecommunications carriers and manufacturers. The joint booth saw a presentation clearly explaining the current status, achievements and future perspectives of PHS technology as well as technical standards of data transmission (PIAFS).
The participating companies gave their own exhibitions while working on the common theme of data transmission, noting that the public service of 32-kbps high-speed data transmission just started in April 1997. Especially, the demonstration of radio data transmission and its PHS network deployment as with the WLL system attracted a great deal of attention from participants and visitors. Many of the exhibitors assured themselves that this would promote a wider use of PHS technology.