TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hitachi Cable, Ltd. (TOKYO:5812) has announced that Symphony Communication Co., Ltd. (headquarters: Bangkok, Thailand), a telecommunications carrier in Thailand, has adopted Hitachi Cable’s Apresia (NOTE 1, 2) Ethernet switches as core switches for the Ethernet services (NOTE 3) the company provides. This will mark the first use of Apresia for Ethernet services outside Japan.

Since developing the Apresia series (its own brand of Ethernet switches) in 2003, Hitachi Cable has continued to expand sales of the series for corporate LAN networks, wide-area Ethernet services based on the layer-two technologies used by telecommunications carriers, and other applications. High reliability and the development of a versatile range of functions ideally suited to the unique characteristics of telecommunications networks have led to the adoption of Apresia switches by numerous customers, generally telecommunications carriers operating in Japan.

The performance of the Apresia series in use at telecommunications carriers in Japan has been highly rated by overseas markets. In addition to earlier adoption as an edge switch at service facilities in nine countries to provide global wide-area Ethernet services deployed by Japanese telecommunications carriers, the Apresia switches are also used as elements of high-speed backbones for data centers.

In recent years, improvements in the high-speed telecommunications infrastructure have advanced in areas such as fiber-optic telecommunications networks, particularly in Asian markets. With continuing growth expected in the Ethernet services market, Hitachi Cable is focusing efforts on expanding sales overseas, based on the performance already demonstrated in Japan and overseas markets.

Symphony Communication of Thailand chose to adopt Hitachi Cable’s Apresia switches as core switches for its Ethernet services.

Symphony Communication, a telecommunications carrier, provides fixed-line telecommunications services for corporate customers, including dedicated-line services and Ethernet services, primarily in the Bangkok metropolitan area. Offering high telecommunications quality based on its ownership and administration of fiber-optic cables deployed within the city, Symphony Communication provides lines for use by general business companies as well as Internet service providers and telecommunications carriers. It plans to sell lines for use in 3G mobile telecommunications systems.

Symphony Communication chose Hitachi Cable’s Apresia series as its core switches for Apresia’s superior functions for preventing downtimes and high reliability, as well as for Apresia’s actual performance.

“Recently,” says Kranphol Asawasuwan, Symphony Communication’s Managing Director, “businesses and telecoms active in Thailand have begun to demand simple, high-quality services. We provide two types of lines—synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) services and Ethernet services—but we plan to enhance our Ethernet services to increase speed and reliability and to achieve high expandability. Our Ethernet services use layer-two technology, a transmission method that offers superior reliability and cost performance. We chose to use Hitachi Cable’s Apresia series because we believe the products in this series will let us provide services in Thailand at the same high levels as in Japan, thanks to its high reliability and scalability and first-rate functions for preventing downtimes brought by advanced loop-free function and ring-protocol, all qualities demonstrated by its use for many years for wide-area Ethernet services in Japan, a market noted for high standards.”

Using its involvement with Ethernet services in Thailand as a stepping stone, Hitachi Cable will strive to further expand its share of the Ethernet switch market, moving the Apresia series into markets that demand high speed and high-reliability Ethernet services, including the markets of mainly local telecommunications carriers based in Southeast Asia.