KDDI Corporation and Russian long distance telephone company AO Rostelecom will together spend $42 million to lay undersea fibre optic lines between Japan and Russia.

KDDI Corporation and Russian long distance telephone company OAO Rostelecom will together spend $42 million to lay undersea fibre optic lines between Japan and Russia. The cables will help KDDI respond to the rising demand from Japanese companies, including banks, in Europe and Russia and boost transmission capacity by 1,000 times. It will be ready for service in March 2008. NEC Corporation, which owns Japan’s third largest semiconductor manufacturer, won the contract to construct the lines. Meanwhile, KDDI has benefited significantly due to the introduction of number portability. The company added 325,000 users in November 2006, while its rival NTT DoCoMo reportedly lost 17,500 subscribers in the same month.