Asian Trip Report by PHS MoU Group Secretary General

     The remarkable spread of PHS in China is the current great topic. Not only in China but in other areas it is gaining recognition steadily. Itfs passed somewhat a long time, Mr. Satoh, PHS MoU Group Business Working Group (BWG) Chairperson and Mr. Sugiura, PHS MoU Group Secretary General visited India, Thailand, Myanmar and Viet Nam from October 7 (Tue), 2003 for about two weeks to discuss about the telecommunications with the local parties concerned.

1. Introduction

     Due to the fairly high penetration of the mobile phones in Japan, an attention is being focused on low price and flat rate PHS data communications service at 128 Kbps for differentiation of the PHS. However, the situation is totally different in other Asian countries than Japan. At present the PHS has nearly 50 million users worldwide and become the third protocol next to the GSM and CDMA internationally.

     There are many reasons for that, good voice quality, long battery life due to its low output power of 10 mW etc., however, the biggest point would be its surprisingly low system construction cost. The concept of the PHS to connect the last half mile wirelessly by utilizing the fixed telephone companyfs existing trunk infrastructure is totally different from that of the mobile phones. The PHS systemfs cell size is small and suitable for a service in minimum small area. Further, its handset (PS : Personal Station) output power is low and inexpensive and as a result the telephone charge becomes low as well.

     Table 1. is a comparison chart of the East Asian countriesf GNI (Gross National Income) based on the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairsf data. As Table 1. shows, four countries visited this time have relatively low GNI and are still under economic development. Therefore the requirements for telecommunications service may vary by each country.

     Even in those countries, the metropolitan area has outstandingly strong economic powers than the local cities. And also an underground economy concealed from the official statistics is still active so that itfs risky to swallow only those published figures in whole.

Table 1. East Asian Countriesf GNI

Country Name	Area (1,000)	Population (million)	Gross National Income : GNI (million US$)	GNI per capita (US$)
the Peoplesf Republic of China	9,597	1,275.13	1,064,537	840
India	3,287	1,002.14	471,156	460
Japan	378	126.87	4,337,268	34,210
the Republic of Korea	99	47.27	421,091	8,910
the Union of Myanmar	677	47.75	-	-
the Kingdom of Thailand	513	62.32	121,760	2,010
the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam	332	77.69	30,692	390

(Source : The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairsf data)

Note)

The World Bank (the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) has changed the former expression GNP (Gross National Product) to GNI (Gross National Income) from hATLAS 2002h. GNI is identical with GNP, however, the distribution aspect is more emphasized than GNP.

2. Each Countryfs Situation

(1) India

     We visited Delhi, India on October 8 (Wed), 2003. At the time of our visit, every street looked quite lively, the construction was in the midst of a rush and peoplefs cheerful faces were quite impressive to us.
     As of October, 2003, the number of mobile phone users in Indian is 14 million and the penetration is supposed to be 1% on average and 20% in metropolitan area, so that the telecommunications industry has still plenty of room for future development. The PHS system has been trialed by the new wireless service provider etc., however, its introduction will greatly be promising in the future because the licensing system of India is scheduled to be changed to the unified form and accordingly a national telephone company will be able to provide the various kinds of services in addition to the former fixed telephone service only. Therefore the PHS MoU Group is planning to establish an Indian chapter as its branch office there. In India of 1.5 billion population, more than 100 million demand will be expected if the penetration is only 10%. The telecommunications infrastructure is indispensable for the developing countries. The PHS system will surely play a quite important role for Indian economic development as well, in other words, it can actually be a private goodwill envoy.


(2) the Kingdom of Thailand

     We visited Thailand from October 10 (Fri), 2003. Bangkok has really become quite convenient city after an elevated train service started, young people are fashionable, street is full of commodities so nowadays itfs a typical Asian big city. Asia Wireless Communication Co.,Ltd (AWC) started the PHS service in 1998 and as of October, 2003, its users are a little less than 600,000. In metropolitan area, the PHS is competing with the GSM.
     We also visited AWCfs parent company TelecomAsia Corporation PLC (TA) as well and TA was planning to launch an international roaming service aiming at 100,000 Japanese residents and Japanese tourists of up to 100,000 per month. (Scheduled to be from December 16 (Tue), 2003. Refer to the separate article.) This service enables the same PHS terminal used in Japan to be available in Thailand as well by downloading the roaming number previously in Japan before departure so itfs quite convenient.
     In urban area, the data communications is expected to be growing and a composite service with wireless LAN is under consideration then we felt that Thai market seems to be interesting.
     There is the headquarters of an international organization called as Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT) in Thailand and Mr. Tanuma has been transferred from the Japanese Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications (MPHPT). Mr. Tanuma kindly helped us to give various advices on how to conduct the training in certification of the PHS terminal.
     The PHS service provider AWC and its parent company TA are making positive plan to expand their business. The development of the PHS service in Thailand may somewhat depend on wide lineup of the terminals and accordingly we are hoping for more choices in the future. Bangkok peoplefs sensitivity has already become the same as Tokyo, Taipei, Shanghai etc. so that a new style of the PHSfs usage will possibly be created there as well.

[Bangkok city looked from the hotel] Bangkok is really a big city with an elevated train as well	A dinner with TelecomAsiafs President, Mr. Wada (Advisory), Mr. Adhiruth (AWCfs President), Mr. Satoh (BWG Chairperson) etc.

(3) the Union of Myanmar

     We visited Myanmar from October 13 (Mon), 2003. This countryfs telephone penetration is only 0.6%. The street is beautiful and full of trees and the security is quite good due to the military government.
     Myanmar P&T (Posts & Telecommunications) has problems of the fixed trunk linefs QoS (Quality of Service)and financing the PHS commercial service, however, therefll be a possibility of enhancing national strength extremely by introducing the PHS system. After that we visited a new company Bagan Cybertech, it has a license of 1.9 GHz service in Yangon etc., has positive business policy and its head office building is quite luxurious and modern. Data communications service will also become popular in the future and such background will support the PHS service as well.


(4) the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam

     The last country was Viet Nam and we visited two cities Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh. In Viet Nam, the PHS service is being run by the nickname of gCity Phoneh. Itfs just started and the users in both cities were still a little less than 20,000 in total as of October, 2003.
     To begin with, we discussed with Vietnamese telecommunications authority VNPT (Viet Nam Posts & Telecommunications Corporation) in Hanoi. Because that VNPT is still in its infancy, now is the time when a training of the basic technology and careful support are required. The Vietnamese people are all quite eager and we felt a vitality of this country. The PHS is still a new technology in Viet Nam so that itfs been studied well there. The PHS users will surely increase steadily.
     Next we discussed with PTQC (Posts & Telematics Quality Control) which belongs to MOPT (Ministry Of Posts & Telematic) and controlling the certification of the terminals. They wanted to know about how to test the PHS terminal for certification, we previously asked TELEC people in charge of such to go with us and conducted a technical explanation on that there.

[PTQC Staffs] Eager youth will be contributing to the PHS development of this country in the future	[PHS Antenna] Being added along the trunk road
[UTStarcom, the largest PHS System Vendor] Near to the local office VNPT and has good access to the airport	[The Street of Hanoi] Its narrow gate and far back style is because of the tax system based on the size of frontage.The same style can be observed in Kyoto, Japan as well. Peoplefs wit is the same everywhere! However, it caused bad wireless communications inside the house.
	[PHS Antenna] In many cases, antenna is to be set up with other companiesf in the same place due to the various rights

     After that we moved to Ho Chi Minh and discussed with HCMCP&T (Ho Chi Minh City Posts & Telecommunications : Telephone service provider in Ho Chi Minh city). No CSs (Cell Stations) have been installed yet there as of October, 2003, same as Hanoi, HCMCP&T staffs were quite busy with many things to be done such as the certification of the connection terminals, network quality improvement etc. A training in the basic PHS service would also be necessary. The basic concept of the PHS is different from that of the mobile phone system such as the GSM, CDMA etc. that itfs rather a cordless telephone available out of doors so that it would be wise to emphasize its advantage of good voice quality and low cost in sales talk.

[The Mekong Delta in Ho Chi Minh] Large scale development is now underway in its central part by foreign and national capitals	[HCMCP&T Staffs]

3. Summary

     There exists a big difference between Japan and China in the speed of the PHS servicefs spread. And there are actually reasons why the PHS service hasnft so remarkably spread in Japan though its system is really excellent.

     Firstly, three competitive service providers existed in the same area and as a result the service hasnft been standardized. Secondly, every service provider was a new comer and also not a fixed trunk line service provider so that it needed a huge amount of money to lease the fixed lines. Thirdly, at the time when the PHS service started, CS and PS (Personal Station) were quite expensive so that each service provider was forced to subsidize the PSs and it burdened on service providerfs management to prevent it from a drastic service pricing as a result.

     Actually, the great success of the Chinese PHS service was based on the facts entirely reverse to the above three. Especially, service provider only licensed a fixed line service is able to run the PHS service as one of the WLL (Wireless Local Loop) service, in other words, an extension of the fixed line so that this could be the most effective way for such service provider to secure its revenue.

     Further, considering the spread of the telephone in the developing countries, itfs too costly to connect the last half mile by a copper wire and in this respect, the role of the PHS as a cordless telephone available both at home and out of doors would be important. First of all, an availability of the telephone call is necessary and itfs enough to begin with the gvoice only telephoneh.

     An economic development is tightly linked with the telecommunications. In India, therefs a successful case of having delivered the satellite telephone to the parties engaged in agriculture at free of charge. In Bangladesh, therefs another successful case of sharing a use of one mobile phone by several persons. The PHS will provide those areas with unlimited possibilities. And the Japanese government has been actively supporting the PHS project for eliminating each countryfs digital divide and improving the communications infrastructure. Please kindly be requested to understand the advantages of the PHS system and introduce it into your country as well. Wefd like you to feel free to contact to the PHS MoU Group Secretariat for any further inquiries. (Please refer to the contact name at the end of this article.)

     Lastly, Ifd like to express my heartfelt thanks to all parties concerned in each country for their kind help during our stay of this time. At the same time, many thanks to Mr. Satoh, BWG Chairperson, who volunteered to accompany me, Mr. Ozu, PHS MoU Group Promotion Working Group (PWG)/SWG2 Chairperson, who arranged all local appointments, Mr. Nishibori and the local staffs of Nissho Iwai Viet Nam who are working quite actively same as the trading companyfs peak time, Mr. Seino/Ukai of TELEC (Telecom Engineering Center) who accompanied me relating to the terminal certification issue, UTStarcomfs local staffs in Asian countries, Mr. Iwasaki of Kyocera Thailand, Mr. Ishihara of JRC (JAPAN RADIO Co., Ltd.) Viet Nam who has just started working there and so on.


************* Connact Name *************************************************************

Shoichi (Sean) Sugiura
Secretary General, PHS MoU Group
C/O Association of Radio Industries and Businesses ( ARIB )
14F Nittochi Bldg., 1-4-1 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0013, Japan
TEL : +81-3-5510-8599
FAX : +81-3-3592-1103
E-mail : sugiura@mx.arib.or.jp
PHS MoU : http://www.phsmou.org/

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