NTT and TransTelecom to Jointly Establish New Japan-Russia Undersea Cable--HSCS

Tokyo - February 27, 2007

NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com), a global ICT solution provider, and Closed Joint Stock Company TransTeleCom (TTK), Russia’s leading backbone telecom operator, today signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by which the two companies will jointly establish a 500 km high-capacity undersea fiber-optic cable “the Hokkaido-Sakhalin Cable System (HSCS)” that will transmit data at up to 640 Gigabits per second between Ishikari, Hokkaido in Japan and Nevelsk, Sakhalin in Russia, based around Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology. The project will be completed by the end of 2007.

By connecting the HSCS and TTK’s 50,000 km transcontinental optical route following that of the Siberian railway and now providing a seamless connection between Europe and Asia, the two companies will realize the shortest uninterrupted link from Tokyo and other parts of Asia to Russia and Europe.

The new route will also function as a rerouting network for the existing route that connects Japan and Europe via the Indian Ocean, providing extra backup in the event of a probable disaster like an earthquake.

The proposed agreement comes in the wake of strong demand for data communications services from multinational companies expanding their business into Russia.

NTT Com and TTK signed a comprehensive agreement last October to interconnect the two companies’ MPLS networks, IP Transit and International Private Lline. The MPLS network interconnection enabled the companies to increase their network coverage through a seamless international network spanning most of the Asia-Pacific region and Russia.

NTT Com’s Executive Vice-President Mr. Osamu Inoue stated: “The signing of this memorandum is an indication of closer regional interaction between Japan and Russia and will greatly assist in the rapid development of multinational companies’ businesses in Japan, Russia, other parts of Asia, and Europe.”

Commenting on the MoU, TransTeleCom’s President Sergey Lipatov stated that “Building Sakhalin-Hokkaido Cable System is an integrated part of our strategy for Asia Pacific region. Put to operation this project will allow Asian carriers and operators to access the shortest possible telecommunications route to Europe, and a redundancy ring with increased level of network latency. Thus the cooperation between TTK and NTT Com offers a new level of quality for transit of large data amounts between Europe and Asia Pacific”

Source: TTK