NEC's submarine networks division will help upgrade the 19,000 km Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 (APCN2) submarine cable from 40 Gbps to 100 Gbps. The project will be completed by the first quarter of 2014.
The submarine systems supplier signed a contract with APCN2's 13-member purchasing consortium, which includes top Tier 1s like AT&T (NYSE: T), Vodafone, China Telecom, NTT Communications, SingTel and others.
In addition to providing digital coherent technology to support the 100 Gbps DWDM upgrade, NEC will supply its NS Series T740SW line terminal equipment to the project.
APCN2 has been part of NEC's service list since 2001, when the subsea supplier implemented the cable's original 10 Gbps DWDM system design. NEC also supplied transmission equipment for the cable's 2011 upgrade to 40 Gbps.
"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," said Dr. Yasuhiro Aoki, general manager of NEC's Submarine Networks, in a news release.
The Asia-Pacific region is a critical area for submarine cables, which provide high-speed, low-latency data transmission across vast geographical distances. NEC is the third-largest submarine cable system supplier in the world, and plays a role in many of the installations and upgrades of the ocean-spanning networks. In recent years, NEC has focused more on supplying solutions and equipment to existing systems rather than complete subsea rollouts.
For more:
- see the release
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