NTT Communications (NTT Com) of Japan has agreed to buy Pacific Crossing, operator of the Pacific Crossing-1 (PC-1) trans-Pacific cable network. The networking and business services arm of NTT, Japan’s largest telecoms company, will reportedly pay slightly more than JPY10 billion (USD105 million), significantly higher than the USD80 million-USD90 million it had bid when the talks were first reported in March.
According to TeleGeography’s Global Bandwidth Research Service, the lit capacity of PC-1 is 1Tbps and has the potential to reach 3.2Tbps. The 21,000km cable uses a ring configuration to connect Japan with the United States, with two landing stations on each side. According to an NTT statement, the acquisition of Pacific Crossing will enable it to strengthen its trans-Pacific cable capacity and reliability, and thereby better meet customer demand for data communication between Japan, the rest of Asia and the United States.
According to Alan Mauldin, research director at TeleGeography, NTT’s decision to acquire 100% ownership of a submarine cable operator is particularly noteworthy. ‘We have not seen many of the traditional carriers opting to become the sole owner of submarine cables in the past few years. NTT already has a large amount of trans-Pacific capacity spread across several systems. The company expects capacity demand to rise at such a pace that acquiring PC-1 was a cost-effective option.’