TOKYO, Japan — NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com), the ICT solutions and international communications business within NTT (NYSE: NTT), announced today that it has agreed with 28 of its global telecommunications partner carriers on a number of policies to further improve the quality of its Arcstar™ global network service, NTT Com's network service for enterprises delivered in 196 countries/regions, during the Arcstar Carrier Forum 2016, which took place in Tokyo on June 1 and 2.

The Arcstar Carrier Forum is an international conference organized by NTT Com to consider strategies for strengthening Arcstar-branded managed network services for multinational corporations. Arcstar™ global network services include IP-VPN, e-VLAN, leased lines and Arcstar Universal One, a cloud-optimized network service that securely links closed enterprise networks with global cloud services. This is the 13th forum since 2000 that NTT Com has organized in Japan for partner carriers from around the world.

During this year's conference, which focused on further improving customer satisfaction, the parties agreed to continue to increase availability, reduce failure rates and strive for a number of other improvements measured by strict key performance indicators (KPI); these are aimed at enabling overseas carriers to continue delivering high-quality services that meet customer expectations. NTT Com looks forward to cooperating with global carriers in these initiatives, with the ultimate objective of further increasing customer satisfaction.

Reflecting the major theme of this year's event, "Go beyond~True Collaboration~", participants undertook the following activities and reached the following conclusions through presentations by NTT Com, partner carriers and analysts, working sessions focusing on ICT trends, and presentations of case studies of service improvements.

• The participants considered how to improve quality in terms of global network service layout, formulation, operation and maintenance; they additionally agreed on the importance of exceeding customer expectations by reviewing technologies and processes that may not have recently been subject to review.
• Participants discussed the importance of the role played by NTT Com and its partner carriers in their customers' business, and what customers expect of their carriers; this was followed by an open discussion of how to meet those expectations.
• Participants shared and discussed case studies of actual initiatives taken by various participants, identifying best practices that would help them improve their own activities. Various suggestions put forward during the forum are expected to serve as stepping stones to further improvement.
• NTT Com representatives outlined the KPIs that NTT Com considers most important; they then presented awards to the partners who had conducted the most effective improvement measures, implemented the best quality-enhancement practices, and achieved the most significant improvements. They furthermore agreed with the partner carriers on updated goals and directions for the coming year.

Improvements agreed to during the Forum

The participants agreed to further strengthen their partnerships and to strive for the following improvements by overseas carriers in the delivery of high-quality services that meet customers' demands:

• Increased availability
• Reduced failure rates
• Reduced instances of long-term failure
• Improved rates of determining the cause at the time of any outage
• Delivery of timely information to customers
• Improved rate of on-time delivery to customers
• Reduced lead times for line delivery

NTT Com Partner Carriers that attended Arcstar Carrier Forum 2016:

China: China Telecom Global Limited

China: China Telecom Corporation Limited

Korea: KT Corporation

Hong Kong: Hutchison Global Communications Limited

Hong Kong: Wharf T&T Limited

Hong Kong: PCCW Global Ltd.

Taiwan: Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd.

Philippines: Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company

Indonesia: Indosat Ooredoo

Indonesia: PT. Telekomunikasi Indonesia International

Indonesia: Biznet Networks

Vietnam: Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications International

Vietnam: Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications International Bac Ninh

Malaysia: TIME dotCom Bhd

Thailand: CAT Telecom Public Company Limited

India: Tata Communications Ltd.

India/Singapore: Bharti International Singapore Pte. Ltd.

Australia/Japan: Telstra Japan K.K.

Australia: Singtel Optus Pty Limited

France: Orange Business Services

UK/Spain/Denmark: Colt Technology Services A/S

UK/Japan: Colt Technology Services Co., Ltd.

UK: Interoute Communications Limited

USA: Verizon Communications Inc.

USA/Japan: Verizon Japan Ltd.

USA: XO Communications

USA: Level 3 Communications

South America: Neutrona Networks

Message by Guest Speaker attending Arcstar Carrier Forum 2016

Mr. Yasuo Ohashi at HITACHI, Ltd. and a guest speaker at Arcstar Carrier Forum 2016, said: "Until today, HITACHI's global business grew to become one of the leading companies in IT industry which possess 300 affiliate companies domestically, and 800 affiliate companies globally. To further develop, high speed and high quality network is indispensable. When we face the trouble, we do not get satisfied just by resolving it, but we ask question to ourselves at least 5 times; "Why did this happen?", "What caused it?" We believe that the trouble is a lesson to avoid the same in the future, and foundation to build the robust network which does not repeat the same trouble. This is a "Spirit of gleaning", which we carry out in our company when we face the problem. Including NTT Communications, every one of the partner carriers were participating in Arcstar Carrier Forum in a constructive manner which I felt was very encouraging (reliable). We strongly request and expect NTT communications to continue this spirit to enhance service quality and as a reliable business partner."

About NTT Communications Corporation

NTT Communications provides consultancy, architecture, security and cloud services to optimize the information and communications technology (ICT) environments of enterprises. These offerings are backed by the company’s worldwide infrastructure, including the leading global tier-1 IP network, the Arcstar Universal One™ VPN network reaching 196 countries/regions, and 140 secure data centers worldwide. NTT Communications’ solutions leverage the global resources of NTT Group companies including Dimension Data, NTT DOCOMO and NTT DATA.
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