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| 2002.08.29 |
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NTT East Starts Using "Smart Pit"
"Smart Pit" is a service provided by NTT COMWARE CORPORATION (Head Office: Minato-ku, Tokyo, President: Yuji Matsuo, hereinafter: NTT COMWARE), which enables a "convenience store" to receive a charge for a company without an invoice. In September, NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE EAST CORPORATION (Head Office: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, President: Satoshi Miura, hereinafter: NTT East) will start using the service to receive telephone charges. When on a trip, NTT East users can pay telephone bills without an invoice using a Smart Pit card at a convenience store. This is the first time public utility charges can be paid by using Smart Pit.
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Smart Pit service allows consumers to shop by mail order and at Internet malls by indicating Smart Pit card number and pay for their purchase at a convenience store only by simply showing the card.(*) In case of paying a telephone charge, customers must call NTT East billing inquiry center to register their ID number in advance. Smart Pit card is the size of a business card, and is available at convenience stores handling Smart Pit. So far, there are approximately 21,000 outlets.
Since Smart Pit service accepts only payment in cash with Smart Pit card, it can eliminate the users' anxiety about illegal usage by others and personal information leakage of bank accounts and credit card ID numbers. It also helps user companies of Smart Pit to reduce the cost of printing, issuing, and posting invoices and receipts.
At present, there are about 400 companies which are able to use Smart Pit. Besides Internet shopping the use of Smart Pit has been growing rapidly as a means to receive payment by charging prepaid cards. For further expansion of its use in many types of business, we will work on companies like telephone, electric power, and gas. We are aiming at the 4 billion yen sales of Smart Pit project in fiscal 2004 by increasing the number of convenience store outlets.
(*)At Lawson: A terminal "Loppi" are setup at each store, insert a Smart Pit card into a terminal, present a receipt printed out, and pay at the check-out counter.
[the List of Convenience Stores Handling Smart Pit (the number of outlets)]
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Lawson
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7,624 outlets
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Family Mart
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5,840 outlets
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Three F
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639 outlets
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Mini Stop
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1,498 outlets
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Circle K
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2,858 outlets
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Sunkus and Associates
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3,102 outlets
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Total
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21,561 outlets
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(as of 31, May,2002)
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