Opening Speech by Dr. H. Ishikawa, Chairperson


It is my pleasure to welcome all of the invited guests and all of our members. Since the PHS MoU Group inauguration on July 3rd in Singapore last year, we have made remarkable progress in PHS. The public data communication services started in April in Japan and the number of subscribers has reached 7 million. PHS frequencies or introductions of PHS systems have been approved in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Philippines and South Africa. Furthermore, many countries are considering the introduction of PHS. As you know, the public PHS service will launch here in Thailand by the end of this year. This is a remarkable milestone for our group because this is the first outside Japan. So I am very pleased that we hold our Annual General Meeting with so many invited guests and so many members in Bangkok. We want to express our sincere thanks to the Post and Telegraph Department, Telecommunication Association of Thailand and all of the people who have helped us to prepare the General Meeting and the PHS Symposium.