(Nikkei BP Group)
(No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)
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| Telecom Firm Owned by IIJ, Toyota, Sony to Offer High-Speed Services
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February 1, 1999 (TOKYO) -- Crosswave Communications Inc. (CWC) announced
Jan. 26 the outline of its telecommunications services that are slated
to begin in April.
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CWC is a Type-1 telecom carrier set up as a venture among Internet Initiative
Japan Inc. (IIJ), Toyota Motor Corp. and Sony Corp.
"By building an infrastructure specifically for data communications,
rather than a telephone network, we'll be able to provide high-capacity
communications services at a low cost," said Koichi Suzuki, president
of IIJ and CWC.
Established in October 1998, CWC is the first telecom carrier of its
type in Japan. Its services are based on an indefeasible right of use
(IRU) agreement, whereby CWC will lease optical-fiber cables from KDD
Corp.
Toyota, which was the largest shareholder in Teleway Corp., a new common
carrier, also is the second largest shareholder in KDD following the
KDD-Teleway merger.
In April, when it launches its high-speed leased-line service, CWC will
have 25 access points in the Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and Hokuriku (western
Honshu) service areas. Lines to subscriber homes will be provided by
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT) and regional common carriers.
The leased-line service will be available at speeds of 1.5Mbps, 45Mbps,
150Mbps and 600Mbps, the company said.
The user-network interface is identical to the type of ultra high-speed
leased-line services offered by existing carriers. Its 600Mbps service,
however, will be targeted at Internet service providers and other companies,
because the fiber to the home that is now available cannot handle such
speeds.
Pricing details are not yet known. However, Suzuki expects that charges
will be set "at less than half the price of existing high-speed digital
leased-line services."
CWC will introduce two additional services in September. The first is
a network platform service, which will enable interconnection of subscriber
locations without connecting them in a mesh topology. The principal
feature is that charges will be based on bandwidth and the number of
connection points and not transmission distance.
The other additional service is a dial-up port service. CWC will provide
access points for companies to use for remote access, and for Internet
service providers to offer dial-up connection services. Details and
costs of the additional services are yet to be decided.
Also, CWC plans to offer a network monitoring service and a co-location
service for customers to set up their own equipment inside CWC premises.
Its long-term plans include providing a high-speed communication service
using Internet Protocol (IP).
CWC did not specify service charges, but it will likely announce very
low fees. They will be sufficiently low-priced to upset the pricing
rationale of existing Type-1 carriers. Low prices are possible because
CWC is building a backbone network without any exchange equipment.
The optical-fiber strands will be leased from KDD on the basis of a long-term
agreement, and will be connected directly to wavelength-division multiplexing
(WDM) equipment. Initially, backbone bandwidth will be up to 100Gbps.
The WDM equipment will be connected to synchronous optical network (SONET)
transmission devices, and CWC will link customers directly to the SONET
equipment.
The network consists only of the WDM and SONET devices. This simple network
structure explains CWC's rationale for preparing to implement very low
communication charges.
More information in English is available at: http://www.cwc.co.jp/whatsnew/002_e.html
Related story: IIJ,
Toyota, Sony Launch Data Communications Company
(Nikkei
Communications)
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