TOKYO, Oct. 23 -- NEC Corp. has received a $475 million contract to lay underwater fiber optic cable for phase 2 of Asia Global Crossing Ltd.'s East Asia crossing submarine cable system. Phase 2 of the project involves connecting a 7,900-km undersea cable with a 19,500-km route linking the cities of Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Taiwan with a capacity of 2.56 Tb. Asia Global Crossing is a joint venture between Global Crossing Ltd., Microsoft Corp. and Softbank Corp. designed to meet the growing demand for large-capacity Internet. NEC is based in Japan and makes electronics and cable systems.