In the world mobile market, 3G service was already launched, however, the PHS subscribers are still increasing. In Japan as well, voice communications service subscribers are expected to increase as WILLCOM introduced the flat-rate service. Especially, in China, there's a net increase in the PHS subscribers because of the delay in 3G migration. On the other hand, the Chinese PHS has some problems as follows

              (1) Churn rate rise caused by quality problems.
              (2) Lines are over loaded by sharp increase of the SMS traffic.
              (3) ARPU tends to go down only by voice and SMS service.

              Kyocera has been in the following activities for their solutions.

1) Network Optimization

      Kyocera is trying to optimize the PHS network by using data collection tool, data analysis tool and the technical team. As such example in Beijing, approx. 6% ARPU rise was observed owing to the increase in call efficiency and traffic made by our own tools and Japan-China joint technical team.
      In this way, network expansion will contribute to not only the service improvement but also the PHS operators' profit as well.

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      In the Chinese PHS market, traffic is mainly generated by voice and SMS. However, an ARPU rise cannot be expected in such situation. In order to increase ARPU, an expansion of the value added service would be essential. The service centering on the PHS packet communications technology can only do that. PHS operators can expect the new subscribers and ARPU rise by realizing the data service users increase and packet contents service in addition to the existing voice service.

  As for the packet service, the following two steps of extension will be possible.

  (I) Existing Network Utilization

      To realize the data service of up to 256 kbps by utilizing the existing network. PHS operators can launch high channel efficiency, high capacity and low cost data service and contents service with the existing network.



  (II) Advanced PHS Technology

      By applying an advanced PHS technology which WILLCOM is promoting, data speed can be increased up to 1 Mbps or 2 Mbps by the compression technology from the existing 256 kbps maximum.

      In this way, by bundling the existing voice service with packet service, operators can expect an improvement of the churn rate and ARPU rise.
      Seamless mobility between fixed lines and mobiles would be essential for the next generation network and we are convinced that the PHS packet service could be an important migration to that.