NTT and NEC agreed to form a capital and business alliance to develop optical and wireless technologies.
To promote open architectures such as O-RAN and to realize the IOWN initiative,
NTT and NEC will set up a research and development structure at an early stage of their alliance focused on O-RAN and NTT’s IOWN initiative. Specific objectives include:
- The companies will develop and sell globally a compact Digital Signal Processing (DSP) chip with world-leading performance and low power specifications. The companies will develop optical transmission equipment based on this DSP.
- Working with global operators and communication equipment vendors, the companies will promote O-RAN Alliance specifications while developing and selling globally competitive products compliant with such O-RAN specifications. In the future, the companies aim to attain top global market shares under NEC’s leadership. Through development, the companies will realize ultra-high speed processing, ultra-low latency and ultra-low power consumption in these products at a level that has never been attained before, by applying innovative devices utilizing optical and wireless technologies to base station equipment.
- The companies will develop innovative technologies and optical/wireless devices contributing to the realization of NTT’s IOWN initiative. As part of the development, the companies will enable greater capacity, higher functionality and lower costing submarine cable systems, large capacity, low latency and automatic/autonomous space communication, and more sophisticated technologies to ensure infrastructure network security.
As part of the alliance, NTT will acquire 13,023,600 shares of NEC’s common stock through the issuance of new shares and disposition of treasury stock by way of third-party allotment conducted by NEC (4.8% of its outstanding shares after the third-party allotment).