Train commuters in Japan make the most of their mobile phones

Commuters in Japan keep in touch with the office using their mobile phones

VoIP, unified messaging, products and services

At the recent NEC Global Analyst Symposium, Larry had the chance to talk about how fixed mobile convergence (FMC) in Japan is further along than in the United States. Hideyuki Hirata, general manager at NEC Corporation, pointed out that one big difference is that about 95 million people in Japan enjoy the benefits of a 3.5G mobile network so of the 88 million people who access the Internet in Japan, some 71 million do so using their mobile phone (numbers as of December 2006). Hirata points out that since Tokyo is so crowded and many employees go to and from work by train, using a mobile device to extend the office while commuting in an often-crowded space makes sense as the most efficient use of travel time.

Citing ways he personally uses FMC, Hirata said that he uses his mobile handset to buy his train ticket. The ticket purchase is authorized at a Japanese railway company’s point of sale (POS) terminal based on a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag embedded in his mobile handset. The pre-paid account linked to the RFID tag can be recharged using the mobile handset directly over the mobile network. The user's account can also be accessed by touching the mobile handset to an RFID reader located on the user's PC and using a secure wired Internet connection from the PC to the railway company. Users who don't have a mobile handset can also use a fare card with the RFID tag embedded at a POS terminal or with a "touch link" from their PC's RFID reader.

The connection to the NEC back office is provided by the NTT DoCoMo mobile network and is displayed on his handset using an NEC-provided mobile e-ticket and membership-card service platform software in a Java application called Light Holder. Integration of the Java point of sale office application for mobile use was developed by NEC and can be used at many retail outlets.

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At the recent NEC Global Analyst Symposium, Larry had the chance to talk about how fixed mobile convergence (FMC) in Japan is further along than in the United States. Hideyuki Hirata, general manager at NEC Corporation, pointed out that one big difference is that about 95 million people in Japan enjoy the benefits of a 3.5G mobile network so of the 88 million people who access the Internet in Japan, some 71 million do so using their mobile phone (numbers as of December 2006). Hirata points out that since Tokyo is so crowded and many employees go to and from work by train, using a mobile device to extend the office while commuting in an often-crowded space makes sense as the most efficient use of travel time.

Citing ways he personally uses FMC, Hirata said that he uses his mobile handset to buy his train ticket. The ticket purchase is authorized at a Japanese railway company’s point of sale (POS) terminal based on a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag embedded in his mobile handset. The pre-paid account linked to the RFID tag can be recharged using the mobile handset directly over the mobile network. The user's account can also be accessed by touching the mobile handset to an RFID reader located on the user's PC and using a secure wired Internet connection from the PC to the railway company. Users who don't have a mobile handset can also use a fare card with the RFID tag embedded at a POS terminal or with a "touch link" from their PC's RFID reader.

The connection to the NEC back office is provided by the NTT DoCoMo mobile network and is displayed on his handset using an NEC-provided mobile e-ticket and membership-card service platform software in a Java application called Light Holder. Integration of the Java point of sale office application for mobile use was developed by NEC and can be used at many retail outlets.

In another example, Hirata explained he can also uses his mobile handset to review and approve his employees' travel plans and expenses - allowing him to make better use of his time once he boards the train. If he has a question about the travel expenses, the mobile application is integrated with the same unified communications features he has on his PC (like directory services, IM, e-mail, and calendar sharing) so he can reach his employees more easily.

Enabling the RFID-based applications and the travel approval process as secure mobile applications are both part of NEC's strategy to offer its customers a ubiquitous workplace that also includes a unified communications component. As a customer of its own technology, it looks like the NEC solutions deployed in Japan have made NEC's own internal business process a little easier and lot more mobile.

Read more about voip & convergence in Network World's VoIP & Convergence section.

Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. Larry Hettick is a principal analyst at Current Analysis.