Aiming for PHS's Success around the World in the 21st Century
-- Greetings from Mr. Nobuhiro Horisaki, Chairman of the PHS MoU Group --
Dear readers of the newsletter and members of PHS MoU Group, I wish to deliver my message herewith as we enter the 21st century.
We, the PHS MoU Group, inaugurated on July 3, 1996, have achieved steady progress towards the goal of spreading PHS throughout
the world. PHS is now used by about ten million subscribers in nearly 30 countries, using public PHS networks, PHS-FWA (Fixed Wireless Access)
networks, cooperative indoor PBX application systems and home-use systems.
Building upon superior voice quality, the mobility and coverage of PHS has recently been enhanced. PHS has realized seamless communications such
that one PHS handset can be used in different ways; as a mobile phone at public locations, as an extension phone at the workplace, and as a
cordless phone at home. The PHS-FWA system has obtained a reputation as being more cost efficient than fixed line telephone systems.
The first commercial service in the mobile communications industry tolaunch high speed data transmission services, PHS began with 32kbit/s data transmission service
in April 1977 and moved to 64kbit/s in April 1999. PHS will also launch 128kbit/s data transmission service and packet ata service very soon.
PHS has released such value-added new services as direct Internet communications, visual communications, location information, remote metering (telemetering),
and music down-loading. Visual phone and other related valuable compact PHS terminals are in the marketplace. In the PHS services in Japan, data
traffic has grown to levels that now exceed those of voice traffic.
We believe PHS will continue to grow and improve in the years to come. The PHS MoU Group will keep on working together in cooperation with organizations
and authorities concerned in order to achieve our objective to contribute to humanity using telecommunications.
