NTT and ACCESS agree on capital and business alliance to accelerate IOWN

Tokyo - Dec 12, 2023 - NTT Corporation (NTT) and ACCESS Co., Ltd. (ACCESS) today agreed to enter into a capital alliance to accelerate IOWN¹.

1．Background

The NTT Group is working to realize IOWN, which is a high-speed, high-capacity communication, ultra-low-power consumption network and information processing infrastructure, by utilizing innovative technologies centered on photonics. On July 27, 2021, NTT and ACCESS entered into a business alliance to advance the research and development of new user interfaces and user experiences (UI/UX) in the IOWN era, as well as the advance development of a value chain for the global expansion of NTT's software products by utilizing the structure of IP Infusion, a 100% subsidiary of ACCESS. From March 2023, NTT-AT is selling and supporting "Beluganos"², a network operating system for white-box devices, by combining NTT and IP Infusion technologies. In addition, as part of the research³ commissioned by NTT for the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' "Beyond 5G Function Realization Program", IP Infusion has been participating in software development.
　To accelerate and strengthen these collaborative efforts, NTT has agreed to invest in ACCESS and enter into a capital and business alliance between the two companies. This will strengthen R&D to realize the UI/UX of the IOWN era, as well as the further evolution of Beluganos and its sales and support structure in the global market.

2．Overview of Capital and Business Alliance

NTT and ACCESS are committed to the acceleration of IOWN.

To promote this capital and business alliance, NTT plans to acquire 5,134,600 shares of ACCESS common stock (12.9% of the total number of issued shares).

3．Outlook

The NTT Group will promote open innovation through co-creation with partners, as well as activities to transform its own network and advance the sophistication of its customers' networks. At the same time, the NTT Group will continue to work with our global partners to develop and implement IOWN services and products to provide low-power servers equipped with photonics-electronics convergence devices in the future.
　Since the launch of the business alliance in July 2021, ACCESS has made steady progress in the research and development of browser technologies that realize the UI/UX of the IOWN era, and in the establishment of a global sales and support system for the network OS "Beluganos" aimed at realizing the IOWN concept through IP Infusion. The Capital and Business Alliance is an opportunity to deepen and accelerate these efforts, as well as promote the implementation of the browser and IoT technologies owned by IOWN into various use cases.

[Glossary]

^[1]IOWN Initiative is a new communication infrastructure that can provide high-speed broadband communication and enormous computing resources by using innovative technologies including optical technologies.
https://www.rd.ntt/e/iown/

^[2]"Beluganos" is a registered trademark of NTT.

^[3]Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, FY2021 Revised Budget "Research and Development of Network Service Infrastructure Technology to Realize Autonomy and Ultra-Low Power Consumption in Beyond 5G Ultra-High-Speed and High-Capacity Networks".

About NTT

NTT contributes to a sustainable society through the power of innovation. We are a leading global technology company providing services to consumers and business as a mobile operator, infrastructure, networks, applications, and consulting provider. Our offerings include digital business consulting, managed application services, workplace and cloud solutions, data center and edge computing, all supported by our deep global industry expertise. We are over $95B in revenue and 330,000 employees, with $3.6B in annual R&D investments. Our operations span across 80+ countries and regions, allowing us to serve clients in over 190 of them. We serve over 75% of Fortune Global 100 companies, thousands of other enterprise and government clients and millions of consumers.