900-kilometer high-speed fiber optic cable laid between Russia, Japan

TOKYO - Japan's KDDI and Russia's Rostelecom have laid a high-speed fiber optic cable across the Sea of Japan (East Sea), NHK channel said on Sunday.

Two 900-kilometer lines were laid down between the Japanese city of Joetsu (Niigata perfection) and the Russian city of Nakhodka. They are capable of transmitting 640 gigabit per second.

The commercial operation of the new telecom line will start this September. The channel said that the new line might intensify bilateral financial operations.

Another undersea fiber optical cable was launched on June 3 between Nevelsk and Ishikari, Hokkaido. That was a project of NTT Communications and TransTelecom and the first direct telecom line between Russia and Japan.

The number of Japanese businesses in Russia has tripled over the past three years. JETRO said that 169 companies had offices in Moscow at the end of last year. However, they had to maintain contact with their headquarters via the United States, in the absence of a direct telecom line.

Itar-Tass