NTT West Expands “All-Photonics Connect powered by IOWN” Service Across Western Japan to Bolster AIOWN Infrastructure

September 20, 2026

ASCII Japan

Overview

NTT West is set to expand its “All-Photonics Connect powered by IOWN” Type 3 and Type 4 services across the entire western Japan region, beginning with Hokuriku in September 2027 and Shikoku in January 2028. This expansion aims to build an “AIOWN” infrastructure optimized for GPUs, networks, and power, addressing the rapidly escalating AI demand. Leveraging All-Photonics Network (APN) technology, the service delivers high-speed, large-capacity communication up to 800Gbps, enabling advanced applications like distributed GPU environments for industrial DX.

In Depth

Key Findings

NTT West has announced a significant expansion of its “All-Photonics Connect powered by IOWN” Type 3 and Type 4 services, progressively covering the entire western Japan region. This rollout, starting with Hokuriku in September 2027 and extending to Shikoku by January 2028, is a strategic move to establish a robust “AIOWN” infrastructure, specifically designed to optimize GPU, network, and power resources to meet the surging demands of artificial intelligence.

Technical / Clinical Details

The “All-Photonics Connect powered by IOWN” service is built upon the All-Photonics Network (APN) technology, a cornerstone of the IOWN (Innovative Optical and Wireless Network) initiative championed by the NTT Group. APN ensures end-to-end optical communication, delivering unprecedented performance in terms of ultra-high speed, massive capacity, ultra-low latency, and significantly reduced power consumption. The expanded services, particularly Type 3 and Type 4, are tailored for different use cases: Type 3 is optimized for wide-area connectivity and large-volume data transfers between data centers, while Type 4 provides direct, dedicated connections between user premises and data centers. These services are capable of achieving communication speeds up to an impressive 800Gbps. This capability is critical for real-time processing of vast datasets required for AI model training and inference, facilitating the deployment of distributed GPU environments, and serving as an indispensable foundation for industrial digital transformation (DX). The pure optical layer connectivity eliminates the traditional delays and power losses associated with electrical-to-optical conversions, enhancing overall system efficiency and responsiveness.

Background & Context

The rapid evolution of AI technologies, including generative AI, has imposed extraordinary demands on data center computing resources and network bandwidth. A key challenge for AI infrastructure is to maximize the utilization of expensive computational resources like GPUs while concurrently minimizing power consumption and operational costs. The IOWN concept, developed by the NTT Group, has garnered global attention as a comprehensive solution to these challenges. The term “AIOWN” specifically denotes the synergistic integration of AI and IOWN, aiming to unlock the full potential of AI by providing an optimal underlying infrastructure. This latest service area expansion by NTT West underscores its commitment to deploying this critical national infrastructure more broadly, supporting a wider range of enterprises and research institutions, and ultimately bolstering Japan’s digital competitiveness.

Strategic Significance & Outlook

The expansion of “All-Photonics Connect powered by IOWN” across western Japan is poised to accelerate the widespread adoption of APN, providing a powerful impetus for the societal implementation of advanced technologies such as AI, cloud computing, IoT, and the metaverse. The low-latency, high-capacity network is particularly vital for creating innovations in real-time sensitive sectors like remote healthcare, autonomous driving, smart cities, and digital twins. Furthermore, this infrastructure is expected to stimulate regional economies and foster the concentration of AI-related industries in western Japan. NTT West’s strategic deployment of this advanced optical network is a clear step towards contributing to a sustainable and prosperous society, positioning Japan at the forefront of global digital innovation.

Source: https://ascii.jp/elem/000/004/436/4436448/

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