May 14, 2004 Tokyo -- NEC Corp. has signed a contract with PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia and Telekom Malaysia Berhad for the supply of an optical fiber submarine cable system linking Indonesia and Malaysia.

When completed at end of 2004, the system will connect Dumai, Indonesia, and Melaka, Malaysia, with an initial capacity of 20 Gbits/sec using DWDM technology. The 160-km cable system is upgradeable up to 320 Gbits/sec, which is equivalent of 3,840,000 telephone circuits.

PT Telkom and Telekom Malaysia are the largest telecommunication operators in their respective countries and are currently diversifying their networks to address the exponential growth in demand fuelled by increased usage of data and the Internet in the region.

Upon completion, the system will play an important role, interconnecting with other submarine cables including TIS (Thailand Indonesia Singapore) Cable; HPBB (High Performance Backbone) in Indonesia; and the SEA-ME-WE #4 Cable System.