NEC Corporation (NEC) and The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited, the owner and operator of five-star luxury hotels, The Peninsula Hotels, in Asia and North America, today announced the deployment of an integrated voice and data VoIP(1) network system linking The Peninsula Hotels’ fourteen hotels and offices worldwide. This globally-connected VoIP network is the first ever built in the hotel industry.

The Peninsula Hotels’ global VoIP network was mainly built by upgrading software, which incorporates NEC’s IP Networking functionalities into NEC’s IP-PBX. The IP connectivity is used in the hotel’s fourteen locations including the hotels in Hong Kong, Manila, Bangkok, Beijing, New York, Chicago and Beverly Hills. This network system was designed and built with a minimal initial investment and completed in a short time.

With the new VoIP network, The Peninsula Hotels has a lower initial investment as compared with a global VoIP network using a conventional method that requires VoIP gateway in each PBX location, a significant decrease of cost from the cheaper international communication costs, and a Global Customer Service Centre located in Hong Kong which handles the global reservations of Peninsula customers.

"The Peninsula Hotels has been working to curb the cost of international calls since the communication among its hotels worldwide has become more frequent as a result of global expansion. The new network system was built in response to this, and it will expand along with the establishment of new hotels," says Mr. Shane Izaks, general manager, Information Technology of The Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited.

"NEC is one of our preferred vendors of PBX systems to The Peninsula Hotels. Building of the new network system signifies the hotel’s recognition of NEC’s technological capabilities to integrate voice and data, its ability to make a system proposal that efficiently utilizes the hotel’s already existing IP-PBX assets, in addition to its proven track record," says Mr. Shane Izaks.