11:00, 25 May 2001

 
FOR INFORMATION

Japan Telecom Co., Ltd.
Korea Telecom Corporation
Kyushu Electric Power Co., Inc.
NTT Communications Corporation
 

“Construction and Maintenance Agreement” and “Supply Contract”
for the Korea-Japan Cable Network (KJCN)
as Japan-Korea IT Optical Corridor Project

 
Four leading companies in Korea and Japan today signed the "Construction and Maintenance Agreement" to build the ultra-high bandwidth optical fiber submarine cable system between Korea and Japan named as the Korea-Japan Cable Network (KJCN). They will go on to sign "Supply Contract" today and will begin the construction. The signing comes after concerted talks among Japan Telecom Co., Ltd., Korea Telecom Corporation, Kyushu Electric Power Co., Inc. and NTT Communications Corporation.

As the Internet is widely spreading in the Asian region including Korea and Japan, the significant progress of broadband services and expansion of e-commerce has been leading to rapid growth of the demand for telecommunications, such as data transmission and video/music streaming. Considering those situations, the four companies recognized the necessity of a new optical fiber submarine cable system between the two countries, and agreed to construct the KJCN system in order to meet the additional demands.

The KJCN system will be ready for service in March, 2002 to cater for future Internet broadband demand and will be utilized for main traffic stream of the Korea/Japan FIFA World Cup event starting from the end of May, 2002.

The KJCN cable system with 12 fiber pairs will adopt state-of-the-art non-repeater and Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology to provide upgradeable, future-proof transmission facilities. The KJCN will connect approximately 250 km distance between the two countries with two routes, Pusan-Fukuoka and Pusan-Kitakyushu. The landing station in Korea will be provided by Korea Telecom and two of those in Japan by Japan Telecom and NTT Communications, respectively.

This plan enjoys the support and cooperation by the economic federations of the two countries --- Kyushu-Yamaguchi Economic Federation (KYUKEIREN) and the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) --- as “Japan-Korea IT Optical Corridor Project.” The KJCN system, with its large bandwidth and high quality transmission technology, will not only meet the present and future burgeoning growth in telecommunications traffic, but also contribute to greater economic, industrial and cultural development in the two countries in the 21st century.


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