January 16, 2012
KDDI Corporation
Okinawa Cellular Telephone Company
KDDI and Okinawa Cellular will start offering "Wi-Fi HOME SPOT" to au mobile phone users on February 14, 2012. This new wireless LAN service for home environments allows high speed transmissions at home via wireless LAN. And starting March 1, 2012, the range of devices compatible with "au Wi-Fi SPOT" will be increased and usage areas will expand overseas.
Wi-Fi HOME SPOT is a service that lets users conveniently enjoy au smartphones as well as other Wi-Fi equipped devices like computers and gaming devices by connecting the wireless LAN access point "HOME SPOT CUBE" to a home broadband line [1].
HOME SPOT CUBE features an easy initial Wi-Fi setup with the dedicated application "au Wi-Fi Connection Tool" [2] that runs a setup with the push of the "Easy Connection" [3] button while viewing the smartphone screen.
And though Wi-Fi HOME SPOT is usually 525 yen per month (tax included), users who use the "IS Flat," "Plan F (IS) Simple," or "Plan F (IS)" and sign up by May 31, 2012 can enjoy it with no monthly fee.
au Wi-Fi SPOT service comes with a new "au ID" feature that lets users connect for free [5] on Wi-Fi enabled devices [4] like their own computers or tablets via the au Wi-Fi Connection Tool. In addition, it is also compatible with au smartphones with Windows® [6].
Moreover, users can use partnered public wireless LAN services in approximately 100 overseas countries including North America, Asia, and Europe in addition to Japan, allowing easy high speed internet connections on au smartphones with the au Wi-Fi Connection Tool installed even while traveling outside Japan. Detailed information on the service area expansion for au Wi-Fi SPOT will be available in a separate release.
From here on out, KDDI will combine the Wi-Fi HOME SPOT and au Wi-Fi SPOT services under the umbrella heading of "au Wi-Fi" and continue to expand au Wi-Fi wireless LAN services.
