Hyatt Regency Osaka Introduces Mobile IP-Centrex050-assigned Mobile IP Phone Terminals to Boost Work Efficiency and Improve Customer Service

Hyatt Regency Osaka will build a wireless LAN environment throughout the hotel and introduce a mobile IP-Centrex system to modernize the hotel's communications environment. Trial operation has already begun, with an official launch scheduled for early December.

This effort is being positioned as the first step in the "DigitalCity Osaka" pilot project to build wireless LANs in the Nanko Cosmo Square district, Osaka. The project is being jointly planned, developed, and supported by Nomura Research Institute, Ltd. and Intel Corporation.

The project is focusing on "new" wireless LAN solutions that "have strong potential for the future." The wireless LAN at the Hyatt Regency is a leading-edge implementation that establishes a wireless broadband environment, offers voice and data over mobile IP phones, and provides both internal mobile phone extensions and outside calls via IP phone without the need for an IP-PBX, SIP server, or other telecommunications equipment at the hotel.

Hitachi Infonet will handle systems integration for the mobile IP-Centrex system using the FUSION Mobile IP-Centrex system from Fusion Communications Corporation. The FUSION Mobile IP-Centrex solution assigns each mobile IP phone handset an 050 number, which allows a handset to be used both for extension calls and to initiate and receive calls as an IP phone. The costs are much lower than for an IP-PBX system, for example, which requires equipment investment and maintenance. It thus becomes possible to build a telecommunications environment at a much lower cost than would be required to set up a new system and maintain on-site equipment at the company's own cost.

The Hyatt will purchase and supply employees with about 80 WIP-5000 wireless IP phones manufactured by Hitachi Cable, Ltd. The new system will allow employees to share information easily and will speed up communications. This will boost the work efficiency of employees and allow them to concentrate on providing more personal service and more attentive service to customers in general.

Plans are underway to introduce wireless LAN solutions to other facilities in the Cosmo Square district in the future as part of the DigitalCity Osaka project. Fusion and Hitachi Infonet aim to provide wireless LAN solutions that offer a high level of convenience to people throughout the Cosmo Square district.

As the wireless LAN environment in the Cosmo Square district expands, the Hyatt plans to lend its guests mobile IP phone handsets for use throughout the district. The project will eventually enable the use of mobile IP phones at facilities throughout the district. The Hyatt's recent steps to establish a telecommunications environment within the hotel will improve convenience for guests, aiming to attract large MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions & Exhibitions) from overseas, which will bring people to the Cosmo Square district, Osaka, and the Kansai region.