OREANDA-NEWS. December 16, 2011. Sumitomo Corporation (President and CEO: Susumu Kato; Head Office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo), Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East Corporation (President and CEO: Tsutomu Ebe; Head Office: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo; hereinafter referred to as "NTT East") and Sharp System Products Co., Ltd. (President and CEO: Koichi Tamura; Head Office: Chiba-shi, Chiba; hereinafter referred to as "Sharp System Products") have agreed to cooperate in providing television-based Internet supermarket shopping services, to be known as "Net Super" services. The new Net Super services are based on the "Summit Net Super"*1 services operated by Sumitomo Corporation and will be provided via NTT East's FLET'S Hikari*2 service.

1. Objective of the cooperation
In recent years, the aging of the population and advancement of women in the workplace have continued apace. Meanwhile, high-speed Internet and smartphone services have become widely available. These demographic changes and the sophistication of information technology have combined to give rise to more diverse patterns of consumer spending. In response, various types of shopping services have become available and garnered broad public attention.
Following this trend, Sumitomo Corporation, which operates "Summit Net Super" currently targeting roughly 8 million households in the greater Tokyo area, NTT East, which provides FLET'S Hikari services to around 9 million users, and Sharp System Products, which proposes new solutions involving LCD TVs and other televisual equipment, will jointly promote the provision of a new type of Net Super services that can be accessed using the television.
By doing so, we believe that we can contribute to improving the convenience of daily life for elderly people and those living in so-called "food deserts," or spots where shopping facilities are not convenient, the number of which are increasing, even in the greater Tokyo area.
2. Details of the cooperation
(1) Provision of "Net Super" services over the television
"Summit Net Super" shopping services, which are mainly utilized by computer users, will be provided via the TV connectable Internet terminal*3 that is to be provided by NTT East to users of FLET'S Hikari services. Sharp System Products will share with Sumitomo Corporation and NTT East the know-how it acquired while providing daily life services via the television.
The Net Super services will allow users to conveniently purchase daily foodstuffs and necessities using an easy-to-operate remote control. The operation will be simple enough even for those not familiar with information technology devices such as computers and smartphones, including a relatively large number of elderly people.
These will be the first full-scale Net Super services accessible via the TV using a remote control offered to consumers in the greater Tokyo area.

(2) Marketing collaboration to increase users of Summit Net Super services
Sumitomo Corporation and NTT East will propose and promote Net Super online TV shopping services using FLET'S Hikari via Summit shops, on Summit Net Super websites, on websites for users of FLET'S Hikari and by other means. By making joint efforts to promote broader use of the services, the two companies will be able to provide high-value-added services to customers of both companies while each boosting their customer numbers.

3. Start time of the service
March 2012 (scheduled)
Note: When the specific time is decided, it will be announced on the websites of the three companies and by other means.

*1 "Summit Net Super" is an Internet supermarket operated by Sumitomo Corporation and provided to about 8 million households in the Tokyo area by SC Netsuper Corporation (President and CEO: Masashi Jimbo; Head Office: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo), a wholly owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Corporation. It is the first fresh food home delivery service in the greater Tokyo area where the products come not from a nearby store of the conventional retailers but are sent directly to the home from a dedicated fresh food preparation facility.

*2 FLET'S Hikari is the collective brand name for FLET'S Hikari Light, FLET'S Hikari Next and B FLET'S, which are all Internet connection services.
Even in areas where FLET'S Hikari services are provided, Net Super services may not immediately become available to users depending on the equipment installed and/or other circumstances. In some cases the services may not become available at all.