Japan-US Cable Network Upgrades to 1.28 Tbps

On March 27, 2008, Fujitsu Limited, the supplier for the Submarine Line Terminal Equipment (SLTE) of the Japan-US Cable Network, announced that it has successfully completed the Japan-US Cable Network upgrade project. Fujitsu applied its state-of-the-art technology to upgrade the system capacity up to 1.28 terabits per second (Tbps), doubling the original design capacity of 640 gigabits per second (Gbps) to support growing demand for high-speed, high-capacity trans-Pacific communications.

To realize the Japan-US Cable Network upgrade, Fujitsu replaced legacy Submarine Line Terminal Equipment (SLTE)  with its high-performance FLASHWAVE S650 series in six cable landing stations, i.e., Shima, Kita Ibaraki and Maruyama in Japan, and Point Arena, Morro Bay and Mākaha in USA. The submerged portion including the subsea cables, submerged optical amplifiers, and branch units supplied Alcatel Submarine Networks remained unchanged. The upgrade began shortly after Fujitsu signed the contract with Japan-US CN Owners' consortium in May 2007.

The consortium represents the telecommunications carriers including AT&T Corp., Cable and Wireless, KDDI Corporation, NTT Communications Corporation, Qwest Communications International Inc., Reach Global Networks Limited, Softbank Telecom Corp., and Verizon Business