[Japan-US Cable Owners Sign Construction Agreement; System To Be Completed in Year 2000]
(I wonder why only four fibers? is the fiber cost really that great? -- mark)
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- A group of leading global telecommunications companies today signed a formal Construction and Maintenance Agreement (C&MA) to build the Japan-US Cable Network, an undersea cable system that will connect Japan and the United States by mid-year 2000.
Carriers involved in the ongoing planning of the new cable network include AT&T, British Telecom, Cable & Wireless, GTE, Japan Telecom, KDD, Level 3 Communications, MCI, NTTWN, Pacific Gateway Exchange, PSINet, Qwest, SBC, Sprint and WorldCom. In total, 33 parties have signed the C&MA and are investing in this project.
To be fully completed by the second quarter of 2000, the 21,000-kilometer, self-healing ring system will consist of four pairs of fiber and use state-of-the-art Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) technology to initially operate at 80 gigabits per second, or 20 gigabits per second per fiber pair (two pairs of fiber will be activated when the system is ready for service), the equivalent of 967,680 simultaneous voice calls.
The network is planned for expansion to operate at 640 gigabits per second, using 10 gigabits per second technology, equivalent of 7,741,440 simultaneous voice calls, making its capacity the largest in the region.
Landing points include three locations in Japan in Ibaraki, Shima and Maruyama; Kahe Point in Hawaii, and San Luis Obispo and Point Arena in California.
In addition to signing the Construction and Maintenance Agreement, the initial parties have also signed a supply contract with Alcatel Submarine Networks, Fujitsu, NEC and KDD-SCS.
The parties to this agreement are investing in excess of $1 billion to build the network, with each party holding a substantial financial stake and joint responsibility for network oversight, maintenance and administration. Capacity is available for sale to any party desiring to invest in the Japan- U.S. Cable Network. |
