16 August 2021

NTT Ltd. to construct a new optical submarine cable, connecting Japan and Singapore, through Indonesian water

Tokyo, Japan – 16 August 2021 – NTT Ltd., a world-leading global technology services provider, today announced that it is forming a cable consortium with four other parties. The consortium will lead the construction and maintenance of the APRICOT large-capacity unique-routed optical submarine cable within Asian countries and the U.S.. The APRICOT cable system will be 12,000km long, with a capacity of more than 190Tbps. It will connect Japan to Singapore, with  branches to Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan and the United States.  NTT will be responsible for operating and managing the following sites for APRICOT system: Minamiboso landing station in Chiba Prefecture in Japan,  landing station in Indonesia, and lastly Tuas landing station in Singapore.

NTT’s  Asia Submarine-cable Express (ASE), Asia Pacific Gateway (APG), Pacific Crossing-1 (PC-1), JUPITER and MIST cables will connect with APRICOT to provide diverse routes and  linking major cities in Asia, Japan and United States, with a secure and reliable international network.

APRICOT will feature state-of-the-art submersible ROADM (reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer) employing WSS (wavelength selective switch) for a grid-less and flexible bandwidth configuration, based on SDM (Space Division Multiplexing) design. APRICOT is expected to launch in 2024 with initial design capacity of more than 190Tbps, to meet rising data demands and complement existing cable systems.

Features

• A unique route between Japan and Singapore
  Through establishing a new and different route from the existing cable systems, APRICOT will bring business continuity to the market, in the event outage due to the natural disaster or other external factor on the existing cable systems.

• NTT will operate APRICOT in Japan, Indonesia and Singapore.
  NTT Ltd. Group company will provide the sites to APRICOT in Minamiboso, Japan, Indonesia and Tuas, Singapore.  NTT in Japan and its Group company will provide connection to other cable systems via Tuas and the Minamiboso landing stations to maximize transmission route options to support global business expansion by customers.

In addition, NTT Ltd. Group companies will connect  the data centers in Japan, Singapore and Indonesia to enlarge the transmission capacity connectivity among those countries.

Overview of APRICOT Undersea Cable

・Total design capacity : more than 190 Tbps (initial)

・Total cable length      : 12,000km

・Landing points          : Japan, Taiwan, U.S. (Guam), Philippines (2 locations), Indonesia, and Singapore

・Operational launch    : 2024

-ENDS-

About NTT Ltd.

NTT Ltd. is a leading, global technology services company. We’re here to enable the connected future. Through the work we do with our clients and in our communities, we find ways that technology can make a positive impact. We call it technology for good. We help organizations achieve business outcomes through intelligent technology solutions. For us, intelligent means data driven, connected, digital and secure. By harnessing the collective effort of our people, together with external innovators and innovations, we drive excellence through the technologies we integrate and the services we deliver.

Together we do great things.

Media Contacts
Mr, Sato, Mr. Shibata, Ms. Kanzaki, Mr. Sakairi, Mr. Tada
ICT Infrastructure Service
NTT Ltd. Japan Corporation
Mail: gcable@global.ntt