Japan's Alpha Institute has been granted Chinese patent number ZL01813057.7 for its Ecology Access Point business model.

"Rapid industrialization in China has lead to an increasing dependence on coal and oil, and the early recognition of this patent can be seen as an indicator of the desire to arrest this trend," said Hiroyuki Wakamatsu, president and CEO of Alpha Institute. "We believe the Ecology Access Point business model has significant potential for contributing to the preservation of the global environment."

The Ecology Access Point is a communications base-station with a significantly reduced environmental burden through the use of natural energy sources. The basic concept of the business model is to create recycling-oriented companies in the communications field by operating Internet and telephone base-stations that use combinations of natural energy sources such as solar, wind and bio-power, helping to combat the increasingly serious problem of global warming.

The business model allows a low-cost, low-environmental-impact telephone company to be established in a short period of time. The Ecology Access Points discussed in the Alpha patent are estimated to be about the size of a highway service station, with one Access Point covering a 30 km radius and handling a functional maximum of 1 million telephone or broadband connections, or about 300 thousand lines. By overlapping the areas covered by each Ecology Access Point, neighboring Access Points can cover to preserve communications even if one Access Point malfunctions due to an earthquake, typhoon or natural disaster, as well as service interruptions due to other accidents or deliberate acts.

The core Ecology Access Point communications equipment, centered on a server, is pre-assembled in a storage container, and moved to location by trailer-truck. By integrating servers according to coverage area requirements, various base-stations can be designed and built. In a vast country like China, for example, areas like highways through a desert or small villages near an oasis can also be covered quickly and at low cost.

Alpha Laboratories, a subsidiary of Alpha Institute, intends to use this business model to develop an international network working with partners worldwide. The business will start with an initial investment of about JPY200 million for one model unit.