NTT Challenges Crosswave

Back to Contents of Issue: December 1999
by Martyn Williams
NTT Communications Corp., the long distance and international arm of NTT Corp., will soon launch a new domestic high speed backbone service. Arcstar Gigaway will offer low prices for high bandwidth and become the first direct competition for Crosswave Communications Corp.'s (CWC) recently launched backbone service.

Like the CWC service, Arcstar Gigaway will use WDM (wavelength division multiplexing) technology to send vast amounts of data across fiber optic cables. The service comes with three bandwidths and four distance bands: 50Mbps, 150Mbps, and 600Mbps, and up to 50km, 50Ð200km, 200Ð600km, and over 600km.

NTT's prices are just below those of CWC and offer, for example, a 50Mbps connection at up to 200km distance for ¥2.0 million (US$9,456) against CWC's ¥2.4 million ($22,695) for a 45Mbps connection over the same distance. The service is targeted at Internet service providers and major corporations and should encourage the use of computer networks in Japan. Both companies hope customers will see the service as a way to get more bandwidth for the same amount of money they are paying for conventional services and therefore switch to the WDM services.

The Club will organize study meetings four times a year, to which listed companies, audit corporations, accountants, and lawyers will be invited. In addition, from November, the club is hosting weekly business plan presentations by member venture companies, to which VCs, angels, audit corporations, consulting firms, recruiting companies, and other interested parties supporting venture businesses will be invited. Membership is free.

Once switched, the customers will have large amounts of bandwidth available and, it is hoped, will then develop new uses for the network and deploy additional IP-based services, which were not previously feasible due to bandwidth limitations.

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