Verizon and Asian carriers to build direct China-US cable

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 19 December 2006 01:08

Business IT - Networking

Verizon, China Netcom, China Telecom, China Unicom, Korea Telecom and Chunghwa Telecom (Taiwan) have teamed up to build a new submarine cable, the first direct link between the US and China.

The new system, to be named Trans-Pacific Express (TPE), will have an initial capacity of up to 1.28Tbps and be expandable to 5.12Tbps. Unlike any previous cable, individual customers will be able to gain access to an entire 'wavelength' channel with a capacity up to 10Gbps.

Construction of the new 18,000 cable system will begin in the first quarter of 2007. Completion is scheduled in the third quarter of 2008, at a cost of more than $US500 million. Announcement of the planned cable follows  the announcement yesterday of plans by Indian global cable operator, VSNL International and Australia' Pipe Networks to build a new link between Australia and Guam. http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/8175/127/

Fred Briggs, Verizon Business executive vice president of operations and technology, said: "In addition to a diverse route directly to China, this cable will add capacity and the higher-speed service customers are demanding...We also will improve provisioning intervals and reduce latency for traffic between the United States and many countries in the region."

The cable will have a landing point provided by Verizon Business at Nedonna Beach in Oregon on the US West Coast and will land on the China mainland at Qingdao and Chongming. It will also have landings in Tanshui in Taiwan, and Keoje in South Korea.