HSCS Project Construction Completed

Moscow - December 24, 2007

TransTeleCom Ltd. (TTK) and the Japanese company NTT Communications successfully completed construction of the undersea fiber-optic Hokkaido-Sakhalin Cable System (HSCS). Comprehensive testing of the HSCS system is currently underway.

This is the first joint Russian-Japanese construction project of this scale and timeframe. Its purpose is to directly connect Russian and Japanese telecommunications systems on the Nevelsk-Ishikari route and to provide global companies and carriers with access to the transcontinental Eurasia Highway – the most efficient data transit route between European and Asian countries organized by TransTeleCom.

The 570-km-long cable system is based on DWDM technology and has a capacity of 640 Gbit/s. NEC was selected as general contractor for construction of HSCS. To ensure reliability and increase system security, the cable was buried up to 1 m deep in the seabed along the entire route.

Comprehensive testing of the system is currently underway. First a seven-day segment test will be conducted, following by a five-day load test. After successful testing, TTK, NTT, and NEC will sign a trilateral acceptance certificate, which will attest to the system’s technical preparedness.

The report of the acceptance board and issue of permits is expected in January 2008. Operations will follow shortly.

HSCS is a joint project of TransTeleCom Ltd. (TTK) and NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com), Japan’s largest telecommunications company. Cable construction agreement was signed by TTK and NTT Com in February this year during Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov’s visit to Japan. HSCS is amongst the largest joint projects in the history of Russian–Japanese economic relations. The new route meets the growing requirements of multinational corporations for data transmission services; it will become the shortest seamless high-speed telecommunications system connecting Russia and Japan. HSCS will also become a part of an alternative transcontinental highway for data delivery from Europe to Asia. Previously, routes via Indian and Pacific Oceans were primarily used for data exchange between Europe and Asia.

NTT Com and TTK earlier signed an Internetworking Agreement and a Memorandum of Understanding for the purposes of joint development of the IP transit business, mutual provision of MPLS-based services, provision of international private lines (IPL), and voice traffic exchange.

Source: TTK