KDD, NTTWN and Japan Telecom to Sign Japan-U.S. Cable Network Construction and Maintenance Agreement

KDD, NTTWN and Japan Telecom are to conclude the Japan-U.S. Cable Network Construction and Maintenance Agreement with 33 telecommunications carriers of 11 countries and areas, in San Francisco, U.S., at 9 a.m. of July 31 (at 1 a.m. of August 1, Japan time).

Japan-U.S. Cable Network is an optical fiber submarine cable network linking Japan, the US mainland and Hawaii looped by both North and South routes. The cable network will start the operation from the 2nd quarter of year 2000.

It extends for a total length of 21,000 km, and thanks to the loop configuration it ensures high reliability by providing instantaneous self-healing function in case of a failure in any segment of the network. On the Japan side, the network will be landed at Shima (Mie Prefecture; KDD), Ibaraki Prefecture; NTTWN, and Maruyama (Chiba Prefecture; Japan Telecom).

The network is estimated to provide an initial equipped capacity of 80 Gbit/s (equivalent to about 968,000 simultaneous voice calls) using the latest WDM technology(*). It is possible to expand the capacity up to 640 Gbit/s (equivalent to about 7,741,000 simultaneous voice calls) by a gradual extension of cable station facilities in the future.

KDD, NTTWN and Japan Telecom as initial parties invested about US$ 51 million (about 7.4 billion yen) respectively to this project, and acquired about 5 Gbit/s (equivalent to about 60,000 simultaneous voice calls). Using this world-largest optical fiber submarine cable, these companies intend to meet the demands for multimedia communications including Internet traffic that are increasing rapidly in the U.S. and the Asia-Pacific Region.

(*) WDM (Wavelength-Division Multiplexing) technology
A wavelength-division multiplexing technology that enables more voluminous information to be sent by carrying a number of lightwave signals with different wavelengths over an optical fiber. While the conventional optical fiber submarine cable has the capability of transmitting 2.5 Gbit/s per light wavelength, the Japan-U.S. Cable Network is capable of transmitting up to 10 Gbit/s per light wavelength, achieving a significant improvement of transmitting efficiency.

[Reference] Overview of Japan-U.S. Cable Network

1) Cable Network Configuration	Northern Route: Direct Route between Japan and U.S. Mainland Southern Route: Route between Japan and U.S. Mainland via Hawaii
2) Design Capacity	Initial: 80 Gbit/s (Future: Capable of being extended to 640 Gbits)
3) Start of Service	2nd quarter of 2000
4) Total Construction Cost	US$ 1.0 billion (about 145 billion yen: for Initial design capacity)
5) Landing Site	(Japan)	KDD: Shima (Mie Pref.), NTTWN: Ibaraki Pref. , Japan Telecom: Maruyama (Chiba Pref.)
	(U. S.)	AT&T: Point Arena (California), Worldcom: San Luis Obispo (California), GTE: Kahe Point (Hawaii)
6) Initial Parties	(Japan)	KDD, NTTWN, Japan Telecom
	(U. S.)	AT&T, Level 3, Pacific Gateway Exchange, Qwest, SBC, Sprint, Worldcom
	(U. K.)	BT, Cable & Wireless
	(*)	Further, 21 telecommunications carriers including DDI, IDC have acquired capacity of the cable network on an ownership basis. Consequently, the number of parties to this Construction and Maintenance Agreement amounts to 33 telecommunications carriers of 11 countries and area, along with initial partners.

[Network Configuration]

For additional information¤ contact:
Office of Public Relations, KDD	Phone:03-3347-6935
Office of Public Relations, NTTWN	Phone:03-5353-0020
Public Relations Department, Japan Telecom	Phone:03-5540-8017