JR East and Japan Telecom provide One-day ID to J-SKY users for the Station Wireless Network

(2003.04.17)

JR East and Japan Telecom announced on April 16 that they will start trial service of issuing "1DAY-ID/Password" to J-SKY users for its trial hotspot service, "Experimental wireless Internet connection at stations" as early as the middle of May. Users can obtain IDs by mobile phones on the spot, and use the Internet connection service using wireless LAN. It can be used for free.

So far on this trial, only the affiliated ISP users who have been registered previously for this trial can connect to the Internet using ISP IDs. However, they decided to provide the new service to let affiliate ISP users to use the service without advance registration, and to allow those who are not affiliated ISP members to use the service,.

The ID issue page for "Wireless LAN Experience at Stations" will be provided as an official content of J-SKY. Simply by accessing this page and select "1DAY-ID/PW Issue" menu, ID and a password are issued immediately, and ESS-ID and WEP key are also displayed. Then, users set ESS-ID and WEP key on their devices, and enter ID and a password in the login page to connect to the service.

Issued ID and password are valid until 3 a.m. on the following day, and can be used at any stations in the experimental area. The same ID and password are issued every time users try to get them by the same mobile phone on the same day, but different ID and password are issued when users get them on another day even if they use the same mobile phone. The two companies selected a one-day password for future business, but they also take a one-hour or one-month password into consideration and will discuss price structure through the experiment.

The page for "Wireless LAN Experience at Stations". Usage manuals are also provided.	Display screen of ID and a password. The same ESS-ID and WEP key are used at every station.

The number of the registered trial users of the experimental Internet connection at the stations available until December 19, 2003 is about 16,000 at present. Many of them are business users in their late 20s and 30s. In addition to expansion of business users, obtaining other new users is also an issue in future commercialization of the wireless LAN connection service. The companies aim at expanding the range of users by introducing this mobile phone system that enables users who are not affiliated ISPs' members to use the service.

JR EAST decided to provide the service by J-SKY this time because J-SKY's official site has already Japan Telecom's menu so that it can easily add the new service. Providing the service to other carriers' users is technically possible, so "We would like to expand the service to other carriers if we have a chance to discuss with NTT DoCoMo and au." said Japan Telecom Enterprise Sales Headquarters, JR Sales Department, Section chief Satoshi Ibaragi (the secretariat of "Experimental wireless Internet connection at stations").

Besides the service to the registered trial users of the affiliated ISPs, the experimental Internet connection at stations also provides "temporary ID issuing service", in which users can connect Internet up to one hour by filling out the application form prepared at Tokyo and Ueno station. Therefore, the ID issuing by mobile phones is the third way to get IDs. According to Japan Telecom, it is the first time to provide combined service of mobile phones and wireless LAN connection service.

URL
http://www.jreast.co.jp/musenlan/
http://www.japan-telecom.co.jp/newsrelease/2003/apr/nr030416_fs.html

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