Home > Corporate Information > News Releases > 2013 > May
With respect to the global economy, in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2013, despite the relative stabilization of the U.S. economy, Europe's bond-related economic downturn had a ripple effect on China and other emerging countries, leading to continued economic stagnation. The Japanese economy, despite showing signs of mild recovery mainly from domestic demand stemming from rebuilding after the Great East Japan Earthquake, has shown weakened growth from the effects of the global economic slowdown. However, the outlook for the Japanese economy started to show signs of improvement from December 2012 through the close of the fiscal year in anticipation of the new monetary easing policy adopted by the Bank of Japan.
In addition to the growth of the information and communications market, due to increased Internet usage in conjunction with the increasing shift to IP and broadband services, the market has seen structural changes that transcend the existing framework, including fixed-line and mobile convergence, cloud computing(*1), the development of "smart" televisions, the penetration of high-speed wireless and Wi-Fi(*2)compatible devices in the market, such as smartphones and tablet devices, and the spread of applications that enable free voice and messaging communications.
The market environment, in relation to regional telecommunications is also changing dramatically, with growing competition in broadband service facilities and services centered around the shift to fiber-optic services, the expansion of other new services that leverage various wireless devices and the resulting diversification of customer usage applications, as well as increased off-load(*3)needs resulting from the increase in the amount of transmitted data.
Amidst such a challenging and volatile business environment, and as a responsible standard-bearer for the information and communications industry, NTT East continued to comply with all laws and regulations and social norms and worked to strictly uphold fair competition conditions. At the same time, NTT East aimed to stabilize and strengthen its managerial platform while also providing high quality and stable universal services. NTT East also worked to ensure reliability with respect to social infrastructure, starting with prompt restoration in times of large-scale natural disasters. Furthermore, NTT East moved forward with its initiatives to achieve full-fledged recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake, promoted various measures to further improve the reliability of its communications networks, and has implemented measures that take into account possible future disasters including an earthquake directly under Tokyo.
In line with NTT Group's Medium-Term Management Strategy "Road to Service Creation Business Group" (the "Medium-Term Management Strategy") adopted by NTT in May 2008, NTT East has devoted its energy to enhancing broadband/ubiquitous environments and to expanding fiber-optic access service user demographics through the provision of new services and products that leverage the next generation network (NGN(*4)), as well as the provision of customer-friendly rate menus that allow longer term usage.
Amid intensifying competition with respect to broadband services, NTT East launched new services, which promote the expansion and continued use of "FLET'S Hikari"(*5)and aim to meet customer needs when using their Wi-Fi-compatible devices.
NTT East also launched the "Ninen-wari" rate plan, which offers discounted monthly charges to multi-dwelling units in addition to single-dwelling units on the condition that users stay subscribed for a period of two years, and also lowered the monthly fee for FLET'S Hikari Light Mansion Type in order to attract more customers.
In addition, under an arrangement with the Jiyugaoka Association of Business Commerce, station areas, the shopping districts and stores in Jiyugaoka township in Tokyo have become Wi-Fi areas through the use of "Hikari Station." NTT East contributed in improving the attractiveness of the Jiyugaoka shopping district by providing an environment that enables the transmission of information about Jiyugaoka's shopping district to smartphones and high-speed Internet connections via "FLET'S SPOT."
Furthermore, under arrangements with local governments and tourism associations in Yamanashi Prefecture, Miyagi Prefecture, Nagano City, Aomori City and elsewhere, NTT East provided Wi-Fi environments to commercial areas which are also accessible to foreign tourists, whose numbers have been increasing rapidly in recent years. As a result, NTT East has enhanced user convenience by enabling people to procure information distributed by tourism centers, stores, and lodging facilities.
As a result, businesses that sell information services, goods and other products by utilizing the Internet now have the option of providing customers with a new and secure settlement method, in addition to existing methods such as credit cards and payment on receipt, where charges are combined with NTT East's, such as FLET'S service charges.
For "FLET'S Hikari" users, NTT East also announced the launch date of the "FLET'S Azukeru" service, which enables the online storage(*7), sharing and viewing of images, video, and other data via the Internet.
Furthermore, NTT East commenced the sale of a set of devices that work with "FLET'S Miruene," for which subsidies are available under the "Project Encouraging Deployment of Energy Management Systems (HEMS(*8)Deploying Business)" program from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. NTT East also launched the "FLET'S Miruene Otegaru Pack (Subsidized)," which includes installation work for the devices.
NTT East launched business operations in fields such as local government, medicine, and education, centered around industry-specific solutions that take into account each industry's characteristics and trends, for the satisfaction of its regional customers through the promotion of ICT(*9)utilization.
In order to accommodate the information distribution needs of organizations such as local governments and NPOs(*10), NTT East launched "FLET'S Cast Share," a service that enables easy transmission of images and other data to multiple users at a low rate.
In addition, NTT East executed a Cooperation and Coordination Basic Agreement with the University of Aizu with the goal of mutually cooperating towards local revitalization and industry creation utilizing ICT.
With respect to business operational structure, in March 2013, NTT East established the "Tohoku ICT Promotion Office" within its Business & Office Business Promotion Headquarters in order to propose and build "Town Disaster Capabilities Enhancement" and "Town Vitalization and High-Speed Conversion," each of which utilize information communications systems, for local governments in the Tohoku Region.
NTT East considers Corporate Social Responsibility ("CSR") activities to be one of the most important pillars in the management of the company. NTT East believes that it is the social responsibility of a company to contribute to the environmentally-friendly, healthy and sustainable development of society. To this end, pursuant to the NTT Group CSR Charter (adopted in June 2006), NTT East sought to comply with the law and address its efforts towards reducing the environmental burden of its operations.
NTT East also worked to save electricity in the winter season, particularly in the Hokkaido Electric Power area.
As a result of these and other cost reduction efforts during the fiscal year ended March 31, 2013, operating revenues totaled 1,831.7 billion yen (a decrease of 1.1% from the fiscal year ended March 31, 2012), operating income totaled 65.0 billion yen (an increase of 29.3% from the fiscal year ended March 31, 2012), recurring profit was 88.8 billion yen (an increase of 18.2% from the fiscal year ended March 31, 2012), and net income totaled 52.8 billion yen (an increase of 64.3% from the fiscal year ended March 31, 2012).