www.oki.com

Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. today announced its development of "Visual Contact Center," a demonstration system using the videophone function on 3G mobile phones .

With the full-scale shift to 3G mobile phones, 30% of mobile phones in Japan have become 3G*1. With this penetration, new services using the broadband such as videophones and video downloads, are becoming popular, which predicts a need for contact centers to use videophones in addition to traditional voice.

"This is Japan's first contact center system to utilize NTT DoCoMo's FOMA Videophone. With this system, communication with video and pictures can be conducted, which will release the stress and frustration many people experience when calling voice-only contact centers. Thus, we believe it can deepen the relationship between companies and its customers," said Katsuyoshi Koide, President of Multimedia Messaging Company at Oki Electric. "Going forward, Oki will actively deploy sales activities for the commercialization of Visual Contact Center."

Visual Contact Center connects Oki's contact center system " CTstageR 4i" with NTT DoCoMo's 3G mobile phone, FOMA network through NEC's video solution 3Gvirdnet*2. By utilizing broadband, this system enables abundant communication by combining voice, video and pictures, which strengthens the core communication between companies and its customers.

About CTstage 4i
Oki launched the CTstage in 1996 as a CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) system to converge computer and telephony. CTstage 4i is the latest model launched in 2002 that provides a contact center solution with softswitch and UnPBX architectures. Ever since its launch in 1996, over 4,500 cumulated sets were sold (as of March 2005), being installed and operated in a wide range of fields.

[Glossary]
*1 : This data is based on "White Paper 2005 Information and Communications in Japan" from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication.
*2 : 3GVirdnet
This is NEC's video solution that distributes high-resolution video to 3G, mobile and PC terminal in real time.