Construction of JIH Cable
1997-006February 6, 1997



KDD (Japan's Global Communications) has decided to construct the JIH (Japan Information Highway) cable, a large-capacity optical-fiber submarine cable that will encircle the Japanese archipelago. JIH is designed to make Japan a hub of the Asia-Pacific region and further improve the Japanese telecommunication infrastructure in anticipation of the multimedia age.

KDD conducted a feasibility study on the use of inland transmission circuits under its JIH vision with regional power utility-group telecommunication companies (nine power utility group NCC companies)*. According to the result of the study, they confirmed that it is possible to ready the infrastructure for the coming global multimedia age and to provide users with inexpensive and high-quality telecommunication services by using the JIH cable and the inland transmission circuits connected to the cable. Based on this finding, KDD concluded today a basic agreement on the use of the network with the nine utility group NCC companies.

KDD also plans to enter an agreement on the assignment of JIH cable capacity with DDI.

The JIH cable will encircle Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu islands, and will be landed at some 17 domestic locations including Hokkaido and Okinawa. The total construction cost of this 10,300-km long cable is slated to be 130,000 million Yen. Employing the world's latest optical wavelength multiplexing technology with very broadband optical amplifiers, the large-capacity optical-fiber submarine cable will have a line capacity of 100 Gbps (equivalent to some 1.2 million telephone lines) and will be "self-healing" due to its loop structure. In other words, the cable system will offer an extremely high degree of dependability.

KDD plans to begin laying the cable in mid-1997 and being operating the entire cable by March 31, 1999.

KDD's subsidiary, Kokusai Cableship Co., Ltd., will use the recently purchased cable laying ship, "Pacific Link", to lay the JIH cable.

*Domestic power utility-group telecommunication companies
Tokyo Telecommunication Network Co., Inc. (TTNet),
Osaka Media Port Co., Inc. (OMP),
Chubu Telecommunication Co., Inc. (CTC),
Shikoku Information & Telecommunication Network Co., Inc. (STNet),
Kyusyu Telecommunication Network Co., Inc. (QTNet),
Hokkaido Telecommunication Network Co., Inc. (HOTnet),
Chugoku Telecommunication Network Co., Inc. (CTNet),
Tohoku Intelligent Telecommunication Co., Inc. (TOHKnet),
Hokuriku Telecommunication Network Co., Inc. (HTNet)