NTT’s Japan-U.S. Internet Backbone Bandwidth Hits 500 Gbps

NTT Communications has boosted the capacity of its IP Network that connects Japan and the United States to 500 Gbps. The new capacity is equivalent to more than four centuries’ worth of content in a daily newspaper, making the Internet pipe the leader in capacity between the two countries.

Demand for high-capacity bandwidth has been growing rapidly in recent years, reflected in the seven-fold increase in NTT Com’s Japan-U.S. bandwidth between 2005 and 2010. NTT said that in the last six months, it has increased bandwidth from 400 Gbps to 500 Gbps to cater to even stronger demand being generated in today’s cloud-computing, micro-blogging, social network and online media-intensive environment.

Although a part of the cable was affected following the March 2011 earthquake, it was able to quickly rebound with minimum impact thanks to its fully redundant cable structure and collaborative efforts with multiple carriers and cable companies.