Expanded partnership will enable Japan’s largest cable provider to boost network capacity and enhance the quality of streaming video for millions of households in Japan

Qwilt today announced that J:COM, Japan’s leading cable broadband and multi-channel video provider, has transformed its video delivery network using Qwilt’s Open Caching solution, boosting its network capacity and enhancing the quality of live streaming, VoD and media applications delivered throughout its network. The deployment brings streaming content closer to J:COM’s 5.62 million subscribing households than ever before, enabling a superior over-the-top (OTT) streaming experience for J:COM customers.

The solution is comprised of Qwilt’s Open Edge Cloud, which provides Quality-as-a-Service content delivery, pushing content caching and delivery far out to the edge of the carrier network. J:COM, which initially deployed Qwilt’s first-generation caching product in 2016, now has Qwilt’s Open Edge Cloud solution deeply embedded within its network, moving content closer to J:COM subscribers than any other commercial or private CDN. Qwilt’s solution reduces the cost of building network capacity and substantially improves delivery quality to ensure J:COM can scale for less and serve media and applications at the highest quality.

J:COM has 28 Qwilt Open Caching nodes in Japan and content publishers are already delivering content on the Qwilt platform. For example, on April 9^th, 2022, J:COM leveraged the platform to deliver live streams of Japan's highly anticipated middleweight unification boxing fight between Gennadiy Golovkin and Ryota Murata.

Jiro Inoue, Network Operation at J:COM, said: “As demand for live video streaming increases, so too does our need to create a scalable network that equips us for the future of content delivery. Qwilt’s Open Edge Cloud solution significantly boosts our network capacity and accelerates our ability to deliver reliable, high-quality live and VoD streaming throughout Japan. We were delighted with the results of our use of Qwilt’s platform to stream the Golovkin vs. Murata fight. The outcome was a flawless streaming experience of the highest quality to our viewers across Japan.”

Qwilt’s Open Edge Cloud enables J:COM to establish a widely distributed layer of content caching resources in its network that delivers media and applications from the closest possible location to subscribers. Each low-cost edge server can be utilized by other virtual network function (VNF) based services making it cost-effective enough to distribute throughout the service provider’s access network. The partnership allows J:COM to rapidly scale up and creates a foundation for future use cases, including site delivery and edge computing.

“Today’s myriad online video traffic brings network operators to a crossroad, as they navigate ways to cost-effectively and rapidly scale their networks to meet demand without sacrificing quality of experience,” said Alon Maor, CEO, and Co-Founder, Qwilt. “We’re delighted J:COM chose our Open Edge Cloud solution. It offers J:COM a universal and scalable solution for optimizing both live and on-demand streaming video. Caching content close to J:COM customers at the network edge means more delivery capacity, a significantly improved streaming quality and extensive media analytics.”

ENDS

About Qwilt

Qwilt’s mission is to deliver connected experiences at the quality they were imagined. Its model is built on partnerships with service providers and content publishers, globally, to create a fabric that powers high-performance delivery of media and applications at the very edge of neighborhoods, big and small.

Qwilt’s open architecture and inclusive business model make local edge delivery more accessible than ever before, unlocking more reliable, higher quality-of-experience at greater scale than previously possible. A growing number of the world’s leading content publishers and cable, telco, and mobile service providers rely on Qwilt for Edge Cloud services, including Airtel, BT, Telecom Argentina, Telecom Italia, TIM Brazil and Verizon.

Founded in 2010, Qwilt is a leader of the Open Caching movement and a founding member of the Streaming Video Technology Alliance. Qwilt is backed by Accel Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Cisco Ventures, Disruptive, Innovation Endeavors, Marker, and Redpoint Ventures. For more information, visit www.qwilt.com.

About J:COM

Established in 1995, J:COM is Japan’s leading cable broadband and multi channels video provider. In CATV operation, J:COM provides cable television, high speed Internet access, telephony, mobile, and electric power service, and services based on IoT devices to customers through 11 consolidated subsidiaries and 65 systems at the local level serving 5.62 million subscribing households in Sapporo, Sendai, Kanto, Kansai, and Kyushu-Yamaguchi regions. The number of serviceable households or "homes passed" in J:COM franchise areas is 22.09 million. In channel operation, J:COM invests in and operates 14 thematic channels which are provided to CATV, satellite and telecom operators. (As of September, 2022)

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