Start of Demonstration Test of "Child Watching Service" Using LPWA

We hereby announce that Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc. (head office: Higashi-ku, Nagoya; President & Director: Satoru Katsuno; hereinafter "Chubu Electric Power"), KDDI Corporation (head office: Chiyoda-ku; President: Takashi Tanaka; hereinafter "KDDI") and Toyota City (mayor: Toshihiko Ota) have started a demonstration test for a child watching service (hereinafter "demonstration test") that utilizes LPWA (Note 1), a new communication technology for IoT.

Development of the child watching service is led by Chubu Electric Power with the purpose to answer needs of parents and guardians who worry about their children coming home late from school and about letting their child go to lessons by himself/herself. By sending location information measured with the small communication terminal carried by the child to a server utilizing LPWA, location information of the child can be checked on smartphones and computers of the child's family.

In the demonstration test, Chubu Electric Power will develop a dedicated WEB screen and manage the demonstration test.

KDDI proactively utilizes IoT aiming for low power consumption, wide communication area and price reduction of communication terminals, and has developed a communication network for LPWA (LoRaWAN) in the school district for starting the demonstration test.

Toyota City has positioned the demonstration test as an activity of "Committee on promotion of social demonstration tests for Toyota City" (Note 2) and will support the demonstration test such as making adjustments with parties concerned.

Chubu Electric Power will gather voices of customers who used the child watching service through the demonstration test and aim to provide a service that is used by many customers and leads to security and safety of the local community as early as possible.

[Outline of demonstration test]

(Note 1) LPWA
Abbreviation of Low Power Wide Area. Wireless communication method that realizes low power consumption, wide communication area and price reduction of communication terminals by limiting communication speed to low speed.

(Note 2) Committee on promotion of social demonstration tests for Toyota City

Organization established by Toyota City as a structure where companies, universities, government and financial institutions aim for development, demonstration and implementation of technologies that solve local problems. Chubu Electric Power and KDDI are also part of the committee.