⚡ What if the internet's backbone could run on light instead of electricity? Japan's NTT has spent six years building a next-gen communication platform that slashes power use to 1/100th and latency to 1/200th of current levels. Now, it just partnered with Europe's top standards body to make it the global default. Here's why it matters.

NTT's "IOWN" Partners with European Standards Body ETSI — A Pivotal Moment at MWC 2026

At MWC (Mobile World Congress) Barcelona 2026, the world's largest mobile technology exhibition that opened on March 2nd in Spain, a major deal came to light: the IOWN Global Forum, led by Japan's NTT, had agreed on a comprehensive partnership with ETSI — the European Telecommunications Standards Institute. According to Takehiko Kawazoe, the forum's chairperson and an NTT Chief Executive Fellow, the forum partnered with the data-center standards body OCP in February and signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with ETSI in March.

Why does this matter? ETSI is one of the world's most influential bodies for setting the technical rules that govern how telecommunications equipment works across borders. When a technology gets ETSI's stamp, it becomes part of the shared language of global telecom infrastructure. For NTT's IOWN, this partnership marks the transition from a Japanese innovation project to a serious contender for the world's next communication standard.

What Is IOWN? — When Light Replaces Electricity

IOWN (pronounced "eye-on") stands for Innovative Optical and Wireless Network. First announced by NTT in 2019, it's a next-generation communication infrastructure built around one core idea: replacing the electrical signals used in today's networks and computers with optical — light-based — signals.

Here's the thing most people don't realize: even though we already use fiber optic cables for internet, data still gets converted back and forth between light and electricity multiple times along the way. Each conversion wastes energy and adds delay. IOWN's breakthrough is eliminating those conversions entirely, keeping data in the form of light from start to finish — and eventually even inside computer chips themselves.

The performance targets, aimed at realization around 2030, are staggering:

  • Power consumption: 1/100th of current levels (100x power efficiency)
  • Transmission capacity: 125 times greater
  • Latency (delay): 1/200th of current levels

Think of it this way: if today's internet is a highway where cars keep stopping at toll booths (electrical conversions), IOWN is a straight laser highway with no stops, using almost no fuel.

Why IOWN Matters Now — AI's Energy Crisis

The reason IOWN is gaining global attention right now comes down to one word: AI.

Generative AI requires enormous computing power, and the data centers that provide it are consuming electricity at an alarming rate. Japan's data-center services market alone is projected by research firm IDC to expand toward the 5-trillion-yen scale within a few years. Around the world, cities are struggling to supply enough power for the data center boom — creating a paradox where we want more AI but can't power the machines that run it.

IOWN's photonics-electronics convergence (PEC) technology offers a fundamental solution. By replacing electrical circuits with optical ones, it can dramatically cut the energy needed for data processing. NTT plans to begin selling PEC devices in fiscal year 2026, initially targeting server board-to-board connections inside data centers. The company has already partnered with U.S. chipmaker Broadcom and Taiwan's Acton Technology to bring these devices to market.

NTT CEO Akira Shimada has been frank about the strategy: the first priority is getting major cloud providers — the so-called "hyperscalers" like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta — to adopt the technology. Volume drives down costs, and cost reduction drives adoption.

The IOWN Global Forum — 170 Companies and Growing

IOWN isn't a solo NTT project. The IOWN Global Forum, co-founded in 2020 by NTT, Sony, and Intel, has grown to include approximately 170 companies and organizations from around the world.

American telecom giant AT&T has emerged as a key partner, with its research division noting that IOWN's All-Photonics Network (APN) technology aligns well with its own Open ROADM optical standards initiative. The Open Compute Project (OCP), a data center standardization body originally founded by Meta, has also established ties with the Forum. OCP members — which include Google, Microsoft, Intel, NVIDIA, and AMD — had a combined global revenue of about $107 billion in 2025, expected to reach $190 billion by 2029.

Google has already adopted multi-core optical fiber (a technology closely related to IOWN research) in part of its Trans-Pacific undersea cable system connecting Taiwan, the Philippines, and the United States. The technology is moving from labs to real-world infrastructure.

NTT's Big Show at MWC — First Joint Exhibition in 7 Years

The ETSI partnership announcement came during a significant moment for NTT. The NTT Group — NTT, NTT DOCOMO, and NTT DATA — held their first joint exhibition at MWC in seven years, under the theme "Photonics Unlocks an Intelligent Power-Optimized Future."

CEO Shimada delivered a keynote speech highlighting two pillars of NTT's strategy: the commercialization of PEC devices and the development of optical quantum computers. With over $90 billion in annual revenue and 340,000 employees worldwide, NTT is positioning itself not just as Japan's largest telecom company, but as a global device manufacturer for the photonics era.

IOWN in the 6G Power Struggle — US, China, Europe, and Japan

IOWN's standardization push exists within a larger geopolitical contest: the race to define 6G, the next generation of wireless networks expected to arrive around 2030.

China is the current frontrunner in 6G patents, holding roughly 35% of all 6G-related patents filed globally — more than any other nation. Huawei and state-backed research institutions are pushing forward with terahertz communications and AI-integrated network trials. In 2024, China submitted three technical standards for 6G to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

The United States issued a Presidential Memorandum in late 2025 titled "Winning the 6G Race," directing federal agencies to accelerate involvement in standards-setting and spectrum allocation. However, the U.S. has few domestic telecom equipment manufacturers; it largely depends on European companies like Ericsson (Sweden) and Nokia (Finland) for network infrastructure.

Europe is navigating its own path through EU "Digital Decade Principles," emphasizing privacy and digital sovereignty. Germany has already moved to exclude Huawei from 6G network construction, signaling a clear boundary with China's digital ecosystem.

Japan's IOWN occupies a unique position in this landscape. Unlike 5G or 6G — which are specific wireless communication standards — IOWN operates at a more fundamental level: the physical layer where data actually travels. Regardless of which 6G standard ultimately wins, if the underlying infrastructure runs on photonics-electronics convergence technology, then IOWN becomes what you might call the "operating system of telecom infrastructure."

This is exactly why the ETSI partnership is so strategically important. Europe represents a third pole — not fully aligned with either the U.S. or Chinese tech ecosystems. A European standard endorsed by ETSI can serve as a neutral gateway to worldwide adoption.

The Roadmap — IOWN's Staged Rollout Through the 2030s

IOWN won't happen overnight. NTT has laid out a phased implementation plan:

IOWN 1.0 (2023–present): Commercial launch of the All-Photonics Network (APN) connecting data centers with end-to-end optical transmission. NTT East and West began offering services in 2023, and in December 2024, the "All-Photonics Connect" service launched with speeds up to 800 Gbps with guaranteed bandwidth.

IOWN 2.0 (2025–2026): Expansion into computing. At the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo, NTT unveiled IOWN 2.0, extending optical technology to server board-to-board connections inside data centers. PEC device sales are targeting fiscal year 2026.

IOWN 3.0 (2030s): The ultimate goal — extending optical signals down to chip-to-chip and even intra-chip wiring, creating a fully photonic computing infrastructure across society.

Can Japan Lead the World in Telecom Infrastructure?

Japan has been here before — and the memory stings. In the early 2000s, Japan pioneered mobile internet with i-mode and mobile payments with FeliCa (the technology behind "Osaifu-Keitai," or mobile wallet), years before the rest of the world caught up. But Japan failed to standardize these technologies internationally, and they became "Galápagos technologies" — brilliant innovations that couldn't survive outside their island.

The ETSI partnership is a deliberate move to avoid repeating that mistake. Takehiko Kawazoe, chairperson of the IOWN Global Forum and an NTT Chief Executive Fellow, has been clear-eyed about the game: "Standardization isn't a volunteer activity. It's meaningless unless it leads to revenue." NTT is simultaneously filing patents and strategically controlling which parts of the technology remain proprietary — a "rule-making" approach that shows lessons learned from past failures.

The question now is whether IOWN can move fast enough. China is building aggressively, the U.S. is mobilizing federal policy, and European carriers are cautious about new infrastructure investments. NTT's window of opportunity — to define the physical layer of the world's next communication era — is open, but it won't stay open forever.

In Japan, people are watching with a mix of hope and hard-earned skepticism. What's the conversation like in your country? Is there a homegrown technology your nation is pushing to become the next global standard? We'd love to hear your perspective.

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