Telecubes Pop Up In Japan

Tristan Cotterill

Telecube is described as a soundproof smart phone box that can be installed anywhere and they are starting to appear in railway stations and office foyers across Japan.

Inside, there is a seat, desk and power outlets. Whilst not new, I am sure regular readers will have seen this sort of thing, either at trade shows like #CES2020 or in up-market Manhattan offices.

This particular public rollout is the brainchild of Mitsubishi Estate Co., together with office furniture manufacturer Okamura Corp, video conferencing software vendor V-Cube Inc. and TeleCube Inc. themselves.

Reservation and room entry is via smartphone and the plan is to install 1,000 of these by 2023.

Monocle magazine covered the story briefly in its online edition and said “Though the cubes offer a handy quick fix for an on-the-go video call, such optimistic growth projections do raise the question of how the minds behind the Telecube see Japan working after the rollout of an effective vaccine”.

There are currently 87 booths already installed in Japanese cities.


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