TOKYO, Aug. 9 — NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com), a global cloud services provider and wholly-owned subsidiary of NTT Group, announced on August 9 that it will start operation of the Asia Submarine-cable Express (ASE), a 40-gigabit-per-second (Gbps), ultra-low latency undersea cable connecting major cities in Asia on August 20. ASE will enhance NTT Com's highly reliable global network services by boosting the capacity and strengthening the redundancy of its Asian cable networks.

ASE, which eventually will incorporate 100 Gbps optical technology, will launch with a total carrying capacity exceeding 15 terabits per second (Tbps), a total length of about 7,800 km, and special designs to withstand earthquake and typhoon damage. NTT Com is the major investor in the cable system, which has been constructed in cooperation with Malaysia-based Telekom Malaysia, Philippines-based PLDT and Singapore-based StarHub. The cable has landing points in Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia, and will add Hong Kong in the first quarter of 2013. The route between Japan and Singapore not only covers the shortest distance to maximize reliability and minimize latency, it is also connected directly to the Serangoon Data Center in Singapore and later will also connect to the Hong Kong Financial Data Centre. The direct connection enables customers there to use NTT Com's network, data centers and cloud services on an end-to-end, one-stop basis.

On August 20, 2012, with the launch of the new subsea cable, NTT Com will begin offering an enhanced global leased line service, by incorporating ASE's low-latency routes into its existing Arcstar Global Leased Line Service. The newly enhanced service leverages ASE's Japan-Singapore connection with an industry-leading latency of than 65 milliseconds latency, more than 3 milliseconds faster than routes via other subsea cables. Existing US-Japan routes also will be used, including the NTT Com's own PC-1 cable which offers the lowest latency connection between Tokyo and Chicago, home of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Superior service between Asia and the U.S. is especially attractive for financial enterprises, such as high-frequency trading firms that issue huge numbers of buy/sell orders for financial products and must transmit such information instantaneously.

This month, NTT Com will incorporate ASE into the backbone of its Tier-1 global IP network, which directly connects the world's major internet service providers (ISPs) and content providers, and, in the near future, will do the same for Arcstar Universal One, its scalable, cloud-based network service.

About NTT Communications Corporation

NTT Communications provides consultancy, architecture, security and cloud services to optimize the information and communications technology (ICT) environments of enterprises. These offerings are backed by the company's worldwide infrastructure, including leading global tier-1 IP network, Arcstar Universal One(TM) VPN network reaching over 150 countries, and over 130 secure data centers. NTT Communications' solutions leverage the global resources of NTT Group companies including Dimension Data, NTT DOCOMO and NTT DATA.

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Source: NTT Communications Corporation