Japan’s SoftBank has revealed plans to stop providing personal handphone services (PHS) for general users from mid-2020.
SoftBank stopped accepting new contracts for individual PHS services in March and will phase out existing services for general users from July 2020.
SoftBank is the only operator in Japan to still be providing services based on the Japanese-developed PHS standard.
The company has been selling PHS handsets using its Ymobile budget brand.
SoftBank will also stop providing new PHS contracts for inter-device communications, such as for vending machines and marking units, from March next year, but will continue services for existing users.
The PHS standard was originally developed by NTT Laboratory in 1989, and services first launched in Japan in 1995.