APCN2 Upgrades to 100G With NEC

TOKYO -- NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) announced today the signing of a contract with a purchasing consortium of 13 major telecom operators in the Asia Pacific region to enable the APCN2 (Asia Pacific Cable Network 2) to support 100Gb/s dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) for the first time.The APCN2 system, with over 19,000km of cable, connects 10 landing stations in the Asia Pacific region and was originally supplied by NEC in 2001 with a 10Gb/s DWDM system design. The system was later upgraded with NEC’s 40Gb/s DWDM transmission equipment in 2011 to meet the region’s rising bandwidth demands. For this latest upgrade, NEC is implementing its state-of-the-art digital coherent technology in order to achieve 100Gb/s wavelengths, a dramatic enhancement and expansion to the capacity of the existing 10/40Gb/s submarine cable network. NEC estimates that by adding 100Gb/s wavelengths, the cable's capacity can be enlarged by as much as 10 times its original design capacity of 2.56Tb/s, contributing to reduced per unit CAPEX and OPEX for customers."We are honored that the APCN2 purchasing consortium has again selected us as their capacity upgrade supplier. This upgrade is indeed a significant step for NEC as well as for the industry, as we demonstrate our ability to provide high-quality and state-of-the-art 100Gb/s DWDM products and services on a system designed for 10Gb/s DWDM in order to meet and surpass client demands," commented Dr. Yasuhiro Aoki, General Manager of NEC's Submarine Networks.The upgrade is scheduled to be completed by 1Q of 2014.Product features include the following:- NEC NS Series T740SW Line Terminal Equipment - State-of-the-art digital coherent technology enabling 100Gb/s wavelength - A small foot print of 1.5Tb/s per rack, providing more than 2 times the capacity density as compared to previous 40Gb/s wavelengthThe thirteen purchasing consortium members are AT&T Corp., China Telecom, China Unicom, Chunghwa Telecom, Vodafone, KT, NTT Communications, MCII, PLDT, Reach, SingTel, Softbank Telecom, and StarHub.NEC Corp.