Brastel Telecom
 |
|
| Public | |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Founded | 1996 (privatized) |
| Headquarters | Ryogoku, Sumida‐ku, Tokyo, Japan |
|
Key people
|
Junji Tanabe, CEO Kendi Kawai CEO |
| Revenue | 6.2 billion yen JPY (August 2009) |
|
Number of employees
|
213 (November 2009) |
| Subsidiaries | ZIP Telecom Inc., Tupiniquim Entertainment Co., Ltd., Brastel Inc. (USA), Brastel Brasil Participações Ltda. (Brazil) |
| Website | Brastel.com |
Brastel Telecom ブラステル株式会社 most commonly known as Brastel, is a Japanese telecommunications company based in Tokyo. They distribute international prepaid calling cards within Japan and Asia via convenience stores. Brastel's largest demographic are Brazilian expats living in Japan. Brastel is one of the most commonly used calling services in Japan.
The company was started in 1996, originally selling call back services. In 2000 they released the first rechargeable calling card in Japan. This product shortly becomes Brastel's biggest source of income. Recently they have started to invest in IP phone technology through their FLiP and Basix services.
They are also noted for their philanthropic work in Brazilian communities as well as for their involvement in the building of schools, providing seminars and lectures for the poor and disadvantaged communities around the world.
The promotion of Brazilian culture in Japan has played a prominent part of Brastel since the creation of sub company Tupiniquim Entertainment in 2005. Tupiniquim Entertainment primarily concentrates on the promotion of Brazilian movies, music, actresses/actors and culture in Japan.
Brastel Telecom was formed in 1996 by Junji Tanabe and Kendi Kawai, which originally provided callback system services mainly to the Brazilian community in Japan. In 1998, an agreement with KDDI (formally KDD) allowed the company to acquire international connections from Japan. In 2000 Brastel released a rechargeable prepaid calling card called Brastel Card (formally Brastel Smartphone Card) and it was available for free in convenience stores and ethnic shops, restaurants and bars throughout Japan. Shortly after they introduced a paperless recharge system, Smart Pit, developed by NTT Comware. The Smart Pit system utilises a barcode printed on the back of the card allowing payments without coupons.
In 2002 Brastel entered into agreements to use the Japanese PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network), which is controlled by the major carriers in Japan. This allowed the company to acquire connections within Japanese territory, making it possible for them to start offering their own direct prefix numbers. Shortly after, Brastel entered the American market, promoting its services in California, USA, targeting the Latino and Japanese communities.
In 2006 broadband internet became the standard for home-based internet connections. Increased bandwidth allowed free calling services such as Skype, Google Talk and iChat to emerge. To deal with this new form of communication Brastel diverged into new areas; investing in online Live Support (Japan only launched in October), providing customers real-time assistance over the internet in both English and Japanese. During the same year they opened an office in São Paulo, Brazil.
...
Wikipedia