Disclosed is a portable terminal apparatus in which there is provided a storage unit in which the setting of automatic holding of a right to talk is stored and held. In response to detection of depression of a right to talk acquisition key prepared in advance, a CPU references the setting of the automatic holding of a right to talk stored in the storage unit and, if the automatic holding of a right to talk is effective, comes into a waiting state of the right to talk acquisition, tries to acquire the right to talk at a predetermined interval, and repeats this operation until the right to talk is successfully acquired. Once acquired, the right to talk is held until a right to talk automatic holding time stored in the storage unit elapses.