Unity Trans-Pacific Cable Lands in Japan

New 9,620 km submarine cable system accelerates Trans-Pacific bandwidth and enhances connectivity between Asia and North America

TOKYO, Nov. 2 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Unity today announced the landing of its Trans-Pacific fiber optic cable system in Chikura, Japan, marking an important milestone in the construction of a new system which will deliver significant increase in capacity between the United States and Japan. With construction on schedule, the new system is planned to be ready for service in the first quarter of 2010.

The cable ship KDDI Pacific Link reached the Japanese coastline in Chikura earlier this week after two months spent laying the newly manufactured cable from the middle of the Pacific Ocean. With all the cable segments in place, the mid-Pacific splice was completed by the cable ship Tyco Resolute on 30 October 2009, and KDDI Pacific Link will complete the final splice to join the cables off the coast of Japan in the coming two weeks. Upon completion of the final splice, there will be a period of intensive end-to-end testing before the system is put into commercial service.

According to TeleGeography's latest Global Bandwidth Forecast research, Trans-Pacific bandwidth demand has grown at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 62.8 percent between 2002 and 2008, and demand is expected to continue on a strong growth trajectory, with an estimated tenfold increase from 2008 to 2013.

"The new Unity cable system will enable members of the consortium to deliver increased capacity and more reliable connectivity to support the growth of bandwidth-hungry applications such as video, the growing popularity of cloud computing and to address the rise of digital content traveling between Asia and the United States," said Chris Wilson, Chairman of the Unity Executive Committee.

Construction of the system was first announced in February 2008 by the consortium comprised of six international companies, including Bharti Airtel, Global Transit, Google, KDDI Corporation, Pacnet and SingTel. The Unity cable system will add up to 4.8 Terabits per second (Tbps) of bandwidth across the Pacific with construction cost at approximately US$300 million.

The name Unity was chosen to signify a new type of consortium, born out of potentially competing systems, to emerge as a system within a system, offering ownership and management of individual fiber pairs.

This new Trans-Pacific cable will provide connectivity between Chikura, located off the coast near Tokyo, to Los Angeles and other West Coast network Points-of-Presence. At Chikura, Unity will be seamlessly connected to other cable systems, further enhancing connectivity into Asia.

NEC Corporation and Tyco Telecommunications were selected for construction of the five fiber pair cable system, with each fiber pair having a capacity of up to 960 Gigabits per second (Gbps). By having a high fiber count, Unity is able to offer more capacity at lower unit costs.

About Unity

Unity is an international consortium that is developing a 9,620 km undersea cable system connecting Japan and the United States. The system will provide much needed capacity to sustain the increased growth in data and Internet traffic between Asia and the United States. Members of the consortium include Bharti Airtel, Global Transit, Google, KDDI, Pacnet and SingTel. NEC Corporation and Tyco Telecommunications are the main suppliers for the Unity project, which is scheduled to go live in the first quarter of 2010.

About Bharti Airtel

Bharti Airtel Limited, a group company of Bharti Enterprises, is among Asia's leading integrated telecom services providers with operations in India and Sri Lanka. The company has an aggregate of over 113.4 million customers as of end September 2009, including 110.51 million mobile customers. Bharti Airtel has been ranked among the six best performing technology companies in the world by Business Week.

Bharti Airtel is structured as four strategic business units - Mobile, Telemedia, Enterprise and Digital TV. The mobile business offers services in India and Sri Lanka. The Telemedia business provides broadband, IPTV and telephone services in 95 Indian cities. The Enterprise business provides end- to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and national and international long distance services to carriers. The Digital TV business provides Direct- to-Home TV services across India. All these services are provided under the Airtel brand. Airtel's national high-speed optic fibre network currently spans over 113,326 Rkms covering all the major cities in India. The company has two international landing stations in Chennai and Mumbai, that connect two submarine cable systems - i2i to Singapore and SEA-MEWE-4 to Europe.

About Global Transit

Global Transit is part of a Kuala Lumpur based telecommunications group with a specific focus on providing robust wholesale and enterprise services. Its investments include TIME dotCom, an infrastructure rich carrier & Malaysia's No 2 fixed line operator. Global Transit was founded in 2005 by a small group of technology entrepreneurs.

About Google

Google's innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google's targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia.

About KDDI

KDDI is the only Japanese information and communications company that comprehensively provides all communications services, from fixed to mobile. KDDI is aggressively working towards realization of the coming Ubiquitous Network Society through its ability to develop leading-edge fixed and mobile communications networks, and services to support them, and through the ability to carry out technical R&D at a level unsurpassed anywhere.

About NEC Corporation

NEC Corporation is one of the world's leading providers of Internet, broadband network and enterprise business solutions dedicated to meeting the specialized needs of a diversified global base of customers. NEC delivers tailored solutions in the key fields of computer, networking and electron devices, by integrating its technical strengths in IT and Networks, and by providing advanced semiconductor solutions through NEC Electronics Corporation. The NEC Group employs more than 140,000 people worldwide.

About Pacnet

Pacnet is Asia's leading independent telecommunications service provider, formed from the operational merger of Asia Netcom and Pacific Internet. Pacnet owns and operates EAC-C2C, the region's largest privately-owned submarine cable network at 36,800 km, with a design capacity of 10.24 Tbps. The company offers a comprehensive portfolio of industry leading IP-based solutions for carriers, large enterprises and SMEs. Pacnet is headquartered in Hong Kong and Singapore, with offices across Asia and in the US and Europe.

About SingTel

SingTel is Asia's leading communications group providing a portfolio of services including voice and data solutions over fixed, wireless and Internet platforms as well as infocomm technology and pay TV. It has a network of 37 offices in 19 countries and territories throughout Asia Pacific, Europe and the United States. Together with its regional partners, SingTel is Asia's largest multi-market mobile operator, serving more than 262 million mobile customers in eight markets.

About Tyco Telecommunications

Tyco Telecommunications, a business unit of Tyco Electronics and an industry pioneer in undersea communications technology and marine services, is a leading global supplier for today's undersea communications requirements. Drawing on its heritage of technical innovation and industry recognized performance, the company delivers the most reliable, high-quality solutions to organizations with undersea communications needs vital to their core mission. In more than five decades of operation, Tyco Telecommunications has designed, manufactured, and installed more than 100 undersea fiber optic systems around the world.

Google is a registered trademark of Google Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including statements relating to expected increases in capable capacity, the increase in bandwidth resulting from Unity's new cable system, and the growth of the bandwidth demand. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted. The potential risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ include, among others, risks related to the difficulty of predicting capacity requirements, rapid technological changes and the introduction of new products and technologies that make it difficult to accurately forecast telecommunications traffic growth, the impact of increasing competition, regulatory uncertainty and the impact of changes in existing regulations, and Unity's ability to complete the construction of the cable system in the anticipated time frame due to, among other things, extensive construction lead times, the limited number of major undersea cable supply and construction companies, the limited number of qualified and experienced undersea cable personnel and significant capital requirements. All information provided in this release is as of November 2, 2009, and neither Unity nor any other company referenced herein undertakes any duty to update this information.

    Media Contacts:

    Bharti Airtel
     Sandipan Ghatak
     Tel:    +91-124-455-2222
     Fax:    +91-124-455-2233
     Mobile: +91-9810776182
     sandipan.g@airtel.in
     http://www.airtel.in

    Global Transit
     Hazreen Nazlee
     Tel: +63-2035-2000
     Fax: +63-2020-1880
     unity@globaltransit.net
     http://www.globaltransit.net

    Google
     Yoshi Funabashi / Jake Hubert
     Tel: +81-3-6415-5842 / +1-650-488-4807
     funabashi@google.com / jakehubert@google.com
     http://www.google.com

    KDDI
     Shin-ichiro Itoyama
     Public Relations Department
     Tel: +81-3-6678-0690
     http://www.kddi.com
     http://www.kddi.com/english/index.html

    NEC
     Mari Takahasi
     Corporate Communications Division
     Tel: +81-3-3798-6511
     mari-t@ct.jp.nec.com
     http://www.nec.com

    Pacnet
     Lorain Wong / Roland Lim
     Tel: +852-2121-2973 / +852-2121-2975
     lorain.wong@pacnet.com / roland.lim@pacnet.com
     http://www.pacnet.com

    SingTel
     Dylan Tan
     Corporate Communications Manager
     Tel: +65-6838-8772
     dylantan@singtel.com
     http://www.singtel.com

    Tyco Telecommunications
     Courtney McDaniel
     Tel: +1-973-656-8000
     info@tycotelecom.com
     http://www.tycotelecom.com

SOURCE Unity