Tokyo, September 28, 2006 – NEC Corporation (NEC) and The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited, the owner and operator of five-star luxury hotels, The Peninsula Hotels, in Asia and North America, today announced the deployment of an integrated voice and data VoIP1 network system linking The Peninsula Hotels’ fourteen hotels and offices worldwide. This globally-connected VoIP network is the first ever built in the hotel industry2.

The Peninsula Hotels’ global VoIP network was mainly built by upgrading software, which incorporates NEC’s IP Networking functionalities into NEC’s IP-PBX. The IP connectivity is used in the hotel’s fourteen locations including the hotels in Hong Kong, Manila, Bangkok, Beijing, New York, Chicago and Beverly Hills. This network system was designed and built with a minimal initial investment and completed in a short time.

With the new VoIP network, The Peninsula Hotels has an lower initial investment as compared with a global VoIP network using a conventional method that requires VoIP gateway in each PBX locations, a significant decrease of cost from the cheaper international communication costs , and a Global Customer Service Centre located in Hong Kong which handles the global reservations of Peninsula customers.

“The Peninsula Hotels has been working to curb the cost of international calls since the communication among its hotels worldwide has become more frequent as a result of global expansion. The new network system was built in response to this, and it will expand along with the establishment of new hotels.” says Mr. Shane Izaks, General Manager, Information Technology of The Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited.

“NEC is one of our preferred vendors of PBX systems to The Peninsula Hotels. Building of the new network system signifies the hotel’s recognition of NEC’s technological capabilities to integrate voice and data, its ability to make a system proposal that efficiently utilizes the hotel’s already existing IP-PBX assets, in addition to its proven track record.” says Mr. Shane Izaks..

Main characteristics of The Peninsula Hotels’ VoIP network system include the following:

• 1. Minimum investment and speedy construction of VoIP network system with backward compatibility, using NEC’s IP networking technology
  • Building a VoIP network system in general is costly because of the necessity to set up a VoIP gateway per PBX in order to connect existing PBX to the IP network. The newly-built system was easily created by upgrading software, which provides IP Networking functionalities, to NEC’s IP-PBX, UNIVERGE NEAX 2400IPX.
    For the locations that use other vendors’ PBXs, NEC’s compact gateway systems, IPS-DM3, were installed.
  • The VoIP network system linking fourteen locations worldwide enabled reduction of initial investment cost. Cost of international business calls was reduced by connecting worldwide locations with internal lines.
• 2. Realizing improvement in employee productivity through advanced telephone features by employing NEC’s IP communication protocol
  • Communications among employees are improved by standardizing telephone numbering plans of all locations and assigning an individual phone number to every employee.
  • The use of NEC’s IP networking protocol, CCIS over IP4, enables advanced telephone features such as Caller number display from global locations, QoS control for voice in the IP-VPN environment and Centralized Call Center in Hong Kong that calls can be transferred 24 hours from worldwide hotel operators.

  “NEC has a major market share for PBX in Hospitality, especially in Japan and Asia Pacific. NEC is now proposing the new UNIVERGE series of IP-PBX and IP Telephony server for the hotel industry. This implementation of VoIP network for The Peninsula Hotels has shown NEC’s migration path from TDM5 PBX to IP capabilities.” said Kazuo Tsuzuki, Associate Senior Vice President of NEC Corporation.

  NEC is offering solutions that enhance customer competitiveness in the forthcoming Next-Generation Network (NGN) era. NEC will continue to support management innovation by reinforcing development and sales of broadband solutions for the hospitality industry.