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As indispensable foundations for social and economic activities, information and telecommunications are expected to greatly contribute to improving the convenience of peopleʼs daily lives, vitalizing local economies, optimizing business process efficiency, creating new businesses and strengthening the international competitiveness of industries as a whole. In addition, the information and telecommunications market has progressed beyond its conventional framework with the advancement of broadband and globalization, the integration of fixed and mobile services, the usage of AI (*1), Big Data (*2), and IoT (*3), the advancement of cloud computing, market penetration of devices that support high-speed wireless internet and Wi-Fi, such as smartphones and tablets, the popularization of applications that enable free phone calls or messaging, and other developments.
The regional telecommunications market is also changing dramatically, with intensifying competition in services based on fiber optic access. In addition, new services that leverage a variety of wireless devices are also expanding. These in turn lead to diversification in the way that customers are using these devices and the expansion of the volume of data communications.
Amid such a difficult and volatile business environment, as a carrier with an important leadership role in the information and telecommunications industry, NTT East has endeavored to be thorough in its compliance regime and to abide by the requirements of fair competition. At the same time, NTT East has worked to secure a stable and solid foundation for its business, ensure its reliability as a component of social infrastructure and provide appropriate support for network migration, through the provision of high-quality, stable, universal services, construction of a sophisticated and resilient telecommunications network that is prepared for disasters and threats to cybersecurity and for significant increases in the volume of data communications, and initiatives for prompt restoration of services in case of large-scale natural disasters and other calamities.
In addition to these initiatives, NTT East has also endeavored to enhance the broadband network environment and further expand its user base for fiber optic services by offering new services and products that utilize next generation networks (NGN), as well as offering customer-friendly pricing options with long-term appeal.
Amid intensifying competition with respect to broadband services, NTT East has offered new services and strengthened its “Hikari Collaboration Model” initiatives to expand and continue using “FLETʼS Hikari” (*4) and to meet customersʼ needs. NTT East has been working to create new demand and to increase efficiency of related operations by supporting its Hikari Collaboration providers.
As a result of these initiatives, the Hikari Collaboration Model is being utilized by over 560 businesses, and the number of subscribers for fiber-optic access services offered by Hikari Collaboration providers reached 6.0 million on September 6, 2017.
NTT East worked on providing new ICT-utilizing services to its regional corporate customers.
As part of its Wi-Fi services for corporate customers, NTT East is currently providing a simple Wi-Fi service, “GigaRaku Wi-Fi,” which includes support services. Starting on October 16, 2017, NTT East also began providing “Camera Options,” which provides camera devices, cloud services and support services as a set to companies to aid in their business efficiency and marketing activities.
In addition, starting on January 18, 2018, NTT East began providing an “IoT Support Option” for subscribers to “GigaRaku Wi-Fi,” which offers support for certain IoT devices and IoT clouds designated by NTT East.
For security services, on April 24, 2017, NTT East launched “Omakase Antivirus,” which, in addition to providing antivirus protection services for devices such as computers and tablets, enables more secure and safer security measures by offering services such as NTT Eastʼs virus infection status monitoring, notifications and virus deletion measures in the event of a virus infection, security setting outsourcing and reports on the effectiveness of security measures.
In addition, on June 29, 2017, NTT East began providing “Omakase Cyber Mimamori,” a service that provides monitoring of unauthorized access attempts and recovery support in the event of emergencies through NTT Eastʼs security support desks. NTT East also worked to strengthen network security by installing a dedicated box with unauthorized access detection and blocking functionality in customersʼ offices.
For cloud services, on May 19, 2017, NTT East began offering “Cloud Gateway Server Hosting” for corporate customers, which allows customers to construct and manage cloud-based file servers and application servers easily and securely on the Internet or on closed networks.
In addition, on July 3, 2017 NTT East launched “Hikari Cloud cototoba,” an AI translation service that improves translation accuracy in the cultural tourism industry through high-volume machine learning of independently produced and collected bilingual texts, frequently used phrases and vocabulary words in that field.
For support services, on October 23, 2017, NTT East launched “Naose~ru PRO” for small- and medium-sized enterprise and SOHO customers who use “FLETʼs Hikari,” offering a dedicated support center for repairs or replacements of computers and tablets that have been damaged due to customer negligence.
On July 31, 2017, NTT East launched the “Office Telephone,” a business phone system for SOHO customers that can accommodate two external telephone lines and up to eight phone systems, enabling the easily construction of an office ICT environment.
NTT East established a “Tokyo Olympic & Paralympic Games Promotion Office” in order to contribute to the success of safe, secure and comfortable Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 through its provision of telecommunications services, with the objective of coordinating with related organizations and centralizing the implementation of the construction of facilities. NTT East is a Gold Partner (Telecommunications Services) for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020.
Furthermore, from the perspective of being able to respond to rapid developments in the market environment, including with respect to customer needs, NTT East reviewed the sales organization that centrally manages large-scale to small- and medium-sized enterprise customers, and renamed the “Business & Office Sales Promotion Department,” which had managed sales of services and solutions, to the “Business Innovation Department.”
NTT East considers Corporate Social Responsibility (“CSR”) activities to be one of the most important pillars of the management of the company, and recognizes that it is the social responsibility of a company to contribute to the sustainable development of society. In addition to ensuring fair competition, protecting personal information, making accurate representations in advertising and complying with various laws and regulations, NTT East has directed its efforts to resolve various social challenges as follows: (i) ensuring a high degree of stability and reliability of vital infrastructure that is indispensable to the general public; (ii) providing various services and solutions that will help to realize a richer society; and (iii) providing information and telecommunications services that contribute to the reduction of the environmental impact of society as a whole, as well as taking measures to reduce its environmental impact by reducing its consumption of energy, resources and electricity.
Having clearly defined the “Shape the NTT East Group is Aiming For,” NTT East has undertaken CSR activity initiatives befitting its position as a bearer of responsibility in information and telecommunication, such as working to widen the reach of the “NTT Group CSR Charter” (enacted in June 2006) and striving to set up specific practices for the PDCA cycle based on “KPIs” (*5) established for each important theme of CSR activities.
For example, in order to ensure the availability of a means of communication during disasters, NTT East worked on the pre-installation of “public telephones for disasters (special public telephones)” in collaboration with local governments. The number of such facilities as the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018 reached 46,000 units, an increase of 5,000 units year on year. This enabled NTT East to build an environment that can provide its customers peace of mind and safety during the occurrence of disasters. As part of those activities, in order to convey the convenience of public telephones in the event of a disaster to elementary school students who have never used them, NTT East worked to raise awareness of public telephone use by creating easy-to-understand handouts and stickers explaining how to use them.
Furthermore, NTT East sold “Calligraphy Art Telegrams (Yume/Tsunagu)” to support the popularization and strengthening of sports for people with disabilities, sold Melody DENPO “Blooming Forest” cards to promote the “Green Revitalization through the Town Forest Project” agreed to with the city of Sendai, worked on initiatives for donations through telegraph services, and carried out the “NTT East Fukushima Forest Project,” activities to create a new disaster prevention forest, in the city of Soma in Fukushima prefecture, with an aim to make additional contributions to the recovery of the Tohoku region.
Finally, in connection with the release of the “NTT East Group CSR Report 2017,” NTT East actively engaged in stakeholder engagement, including by publishing KPIs in accordance with the four themes listed in the “NTT Group CSR Charter” (*6) in conjunction with the SDGs (*7) adopted by the United Nations.
As a result of these measures and cost reduction efforts, operating revenue totaled 1,646.2 billion yen (a decrease of 1.6% year on year), operating income totaled 260.0 billion yen (an increase of 37.5% year on year), ordinary income was 273.6 billion yen (an increase of 33.8% year on year), and net income totaled 152.4 billion yen (an increase of 1.9% year on year).