NTT East to Apply IoT to Minpaku Biz: New Pres.

July 17, 2018

Tokyo- NTT East Corp. intends to utilize its Internet of Things technology to expand into the "minpaku" private lodging business, Fukuzo Inoue, the company's new president, said in a recent interview with Jiji Press.

The unit of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. plans to provide services that will help make "minpaku" business operations, such as room key management and monitoring of ledgers' coming and going, more efficient, according to Inoue.

Minpaku operators are required to improve the business efficiency by adopting, among others, a remote management system that connects security cameras and various sensors with the Internet to reduce the number of resident staff, Inoue pointed out.

As the popularity of the lodging service is expected to grow further among visitors to Japan toward the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, demand for IoT assistance is "large," he said.

NTT East plans to boost such demand by offering its technology and network while teaming up with companies specializing in the field, he noted.

The company also sees a rapid expansion in IoT technology application to areas including the unmanned observation of river levels.

Demand is high for quality information networks to support the maintenance and management of infrastructure, Inoue said. "This is where we can capitalize on our strength," he stressed.

NTT East's sales have been shrinking due mainly to a continued drop in the number of fixed-line telephone subscriptions.

Expressing his eagerness to promote new services, Inoue, who became president last month, said, "I hope to pave the way for a turnaround while I'm in office." Jiji Press