Hiwy ---
I missed the humor. Sorry.
Here's the latest on submarine progress:
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June 15, 1999 15:00
Global Access Ltd. Accelerates Cable-Laying for Pacific Crossing; Second Successful Japanese Cable Landing Scheduled for Today
TOKYO, June 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Access Ltd. (GAL), the joint venture between Global Crossing Ltd. (Nasdaq: GBLX) and Marubeni, a Japanese trading company, announced it is making its second landing today of the Pacific Crossing -1 (PC-1) undersea optical fiber cable in Japan.
"Today's achievement is one of the most exciting and complex aspects of laying a transoceanic cable system," said David Lee, President and Chief Operating Officer of Global Crossing Ltd. "We can now move full-speed-ahead with the actual deployment of cable-laying ships across the Pacific. This effort will peak in late summer and the fall, with the cable ready for service early next year."
The first landing of the PC-1 cable took place along the south-bound route in Shima, Mie Prefecture, in the western part of Japan on June 3, 1999. Today, which is already June 16 in Japan, GAL is bringing ashore its north-bound routing of the PC-1 cable, landing in Ajigaura, Ibaragi Prefecture in the eastern part of Japan as scheduled.
GAL's fiber optic terrestrial network will connect these landing points and Japan's major cities such as Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya as PC-1's backhaul network. The three cities constitute nearly 80 percent of Japan's international telecommunications traffic. Global Access will have its own network operating center, and will be integrated into Global Crossing's global center in London.
When completed, Pacific Crossing-1 will be connected between landing points in Japan and in the United States (in California and Washington State) and form a 21,000-km, four-fiber-pair self-healing ring. The transoceanic cable, the most advanced ever deployed in the Pacific, is designed to operate initially at 80 Gbps (gigabits per second) of service capacity, but is upgradable to a minimum of 160 Gbps, using DWDM (dense wavelength division multiplexing) technology.
"The speed with which Pacific Crossing is coming together gives our partnership in Japan tremendous market advantage just as the Japanese economy is coming back," said Lee. "Japan's Internet users are approaching 20 million, a number that is growing at a rate in excess of 50 percent annually, creating a population of Internet users second only to that in the U.S."
The construction of the north-bound segment of PC -1 is scheduled to be completed by December of this year.
About GAL
Global Access Ltd. (GAL) was established in Japan in November 1997 as a next-generation provider of broadband telecommunications capacity (bandwidth). GAL is jointly owned by the Marubeni Corporation and Global Crossing, a partnership designed to create true global city-to-city connectivity. GAL was licensed in Japan as a Type-1 (facility-based) carrier in April 1998.
About Marubeni
Marubeni Corporation is one of Japan's leading trading companies with annual sales exceeding $150 billion, 199 offices, and more than 500 subsidiaries and affiliated companies in 88 countries.
About Global Crossing
Global Crossing is building and operating the world's first and most advanced global IP-based datacentric network, an end-to-end fiber optic platform for data, voice, video and Internet transmissions. The Global Crossing Network will span four continents and address 80% of the world's international traffic. Global Crossing's operations are headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda, with offices in Los Angeles; New York City; Morristown, New Jersey; San Francisco; Miami; London; Amsterdam; and Buenos Aires.
Statements made in this press release that state the company's or management's intentions, beliefs, expectations, or predictions for the future are forward-looking statements. It is important to note that the company's actual results could differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statements. Information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements is contained from time to time in the company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Copies of these filings may be obtained by contacting the company or the SEC.
General information: Visit Global Crossing at www.globalcrossing.com on the World Wide Web.
SOURCE Global Crossing Ltd.
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