13 December 2019

NTT Ltd. to commence construction of the optical submarine cable “MIST”

The cable will run between Singapore, Myanmar and India, with the largest cable capacity of 240Tbps London, UK – 13 December 2019 – NTT Ltd. a world-leading global technology services provider, today announced it will commence the construction of a "MIST" large-capacity submarine cable between Singapore, Myanmar and India (Mumbai and Chennai). The construction will be part of a strategic joint venture for international submarine cables in South East Asia, with Orient Link Pte. Ltd. from December 2019.

The MIST cable system will have a total length of 11,000km, connecting Singapore, Myanmar and India, and will include capacity for future expansion. NTT Ltd.’s current offerings through cable systems such as Asia Submarine cable Express (ASE), Asia Pacific Gateway (APG), Pacific Crossing -1(PC-1) and JUPITER cables (under construction) provide global connectivity from Asia to the United States. The MIST cable system along with these existing offerings will allow for NTT Ltd. to grow its offering and expand into India and beyond.

NTT Ltd. Chief Executive Officer, Jason Goodall said, “Businesses and individuals from all over the world are experiencing the accelerated growth of digital connectivity - and this is especially true within Asia. Globally, India and South East Asia are some of the world’s fastest-growing economies. As digital investment and demand for data capacity continues to increase, providing access to reliable connectivity will remain critical to accelerate economic and social growth. The implementation of MIST will ultimately allow us to work with our clients around the world to build a truly connected future.”

Features of the MIST cable system include:

End-to-End network provided by NTT Ltd.: NTT Ltd. operates large-scale data centers in Singapore, Myanmar, and India. To ensure the end-to-end quality of the network especially for data center customers, NTT Ltd. plans to connect the MIST cable landing stations directly to each data center through large-capacity fiber which will be owned, built and operated by NTT Ltd. In addition, NTT Ltd. will centrally maintain and operate all the landing stations, aiming to further improve the service quality. This is the first time in the region that the cable system, MIST, will be constructed independent from a local telecommunications company. As all the data centers are carrier-free, clients can enjoy the flexibility to freely select the network carrier between client facilities and the data center.

High quality network between global data centers: By taking advantage of the combination of the MIST cable system and the global data centers provided by NTT Ltd., we will prepare an optimum environment to meet the needs of clients’ applications.

The largest cable capacity of 240Tbps in the region with the cutting-edge technology: With the introduction of cutting-edge fiber technology, the cable will be designed to support 240TBPS with 400 Gbps optical wavelength-division multiplex transmission, capable of transmitting a six-hour high-definition video (approximately three movies) in one second.

Enhance clients’ business continuity: The MIST cable system will deploy branching units working with WSS ROADM (Wavelength Selective Switching Reconfigurable Optical Add Drop Multiplexing) for fast and flexible remote switching of transmission routes. Transmission routes will have the ability to be instantaneously switched to different routes to ensure business continuity, including in the event of a natural disaster or any other unforeseen situation in coastal areas of India.

The Asia region has experienced accelerated digital investment driven by data center growth, the proliferation of mobile, 5G services and business expansion of Digital Platformers, such as SNS, e-commerce and cloud services for enterprises. These advancements have contributed to an increasing amount of data traffic across the submarine cables. NTT Ltd. is aiming to expand its business by connecting the Asian data traffic hub - Singapore - to countries such as Myanmar and India, where there is an exponential growth in demand for data capacity.

In order to respond to the rapidly increasing demand for Internet traffic in Asia, cloud services, and the coming 5G wireless communication era, NTT Ltd. will continue to expand its cable capacity in Asia. With its reliable operations and redundant submarine cables with its data centers, NTT Ltd. contribute to the expansion of our clients’ global business.

"MIST" and NTT Ltd.’s submarine cable

Overview of MIST Submarine Cable

Name	MIST
Total design capacity	240 Tbps/12FP(future expansion included)
Total cable length	11,000Km (future expansion included)
Landing points	Singapore, Myanmar, India(Mumbai and Chennai)
Investment	Approx. 400M-USD
Operational Launch	June, 2022

Overview of Orient Link Pte. Ltd.  

Name	Orient Link Pte. Ltd.,
Address	Singapore
Established	10th October, 2019
Capital	USD 119 million
Shareholder	NTT Ltd., Fund Corporation for the Overseas Development of Japan’s ICT and Postal Services Inc., WEN Capital Pte. Ltd .
CEO	Yoshio Sato
Business	Construction/Sales/Operation and Maintenance for submarine cable

About NTT Ltd.

NTT Ltd. is a leading global technology services company bringing together 28 brands including NTT Communications, Dimension Data and NTT Security. We partner with organizations around the world to shape and achieve outcomes through intelligent technology solutions. For us, intelligent means data driven, connected, digital, and secure. As a global ICT provider, we employ more than 40,000 people in a diverse and dynamic workplace that spans 57 countries, trading in 73 countries and delivering services in over 200 countries. Together we enable the connected future. Visit us at our new website hello.global.ntt.