The story
Early history (1996-2000)
Brastel Telecom was formed in 1996 by Junji Tanabe and Kendi Kawai, and primarily provided callback system services to the Brazilian community in Japan. In 1998, an agreement with KDDI (formally KDD) allowed the company to acquire international connections from Japan. In 2000 Brastel released a rechargeable prepaid calling card called Brastel Card (formally Brastel Smartphone Card) that was available for free in convenience stores, ethnic shops, restaurants, and bars throughout Japan. Shortly after they introduced a paperless recharge system, Smart Pit, developed by NTT Comware, which utilized a bar code printed on the back of the card that allowed for payment without coupons.
Expansion (2002-2005)
In 2002 Brastel entered into agreements to use the Japanese PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network), which is controlled by the major carriers in Japan. This allowed the company to acquire connections within Japanese territory, making it possible for them to start offering their own direct prefix numbers. Shortly after, Brastel entered the American market, promoting its services in California, USA, targeting the Latino and Japanese communities.
The Internet Age (2006-2016)
In 2006 broadband internet became the standard for home-based internet connections. Increased bandwidth allowed free calling services such as Skype, Google Talk and iChat to emerge. To deal with this new form of communication, Brastel diverged into new areas: investing in online Live Support (Japan-only, launched in October), and providing customers with real-time assistance over the internet in both English and Japanese. During the same year they opened an office in São Paulo, Brazil.
In January 2007, Brastel launched the FLiP service, an IP phone that allowed customers to call domestic and international phones via the internet. Three months later, they launched Basix, an IP phone service designed for medium and small sized companies based on the ASP system. While FLiP was intended for the home user, Basix was intended for use by companies looking to replace or buy a PBX system.
From Wikipedia’s article on Brastel Telecom, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4