Verizon Communications Inc. and five Asian partners plan to build an underwater optical cable between the United States and China to meet rising demand for high-speed Internet access.
The cable, almost half the distance around the world, will have about 60 times the capacity of existing lines between the United States and China, and be capable of supporting the equivalent of 62 million phone calls simultaneously, Verizon said on Monday. Most existing cables between the two countries go through Japan, slowing service.
The project, called Transpacific Express (TPE), will cost the consortium more than $500 million, Verizon said.
Going all the way back to the days of Cyrus Field and the 1st TransAtlantic cable, international communications has always been a profitable business — regardless of technical and political challenges.
$500 M? isn’t that like one day’s worth of trade deficit? That’s one long fibre!
Does seem remarkably cheap for a fiber that long in an ocean much deeper than the Atlantic.
Check out Verizon’s wrongdoing at http://malfy.org
Couldn’t they just invest in a satellite connection. Isn’t putting cables under the ocean an outdated technology from middle of the last century.
Half of the content going through that pipe will be blocked, anyway…
#3
Guess who will be listening in?… http://tinyurl.com/gjkmc
sattilites are great, but if the future enemy decided to knock it out and if there’s no cable you could be screwed.
But that price is really awfully cheap. Hell, 6 miles of above ground, no water at all light rail is costing Phoenix over 40 Billion. The Pacific is one deep Ocean, with some drops so deep we don’t know HOW deep. Add to that Godzilla and the Beast at 40,000 fathoms and this could be tricky.
The content from the US, other than passwords and other data ripped from our systems, will flow much quicker without Japan in the way.
At the same time, the spam and hack attacks against US targets will be significantly more efficient.
One way or the other, it’ll help out Wal*Mart.
Buy American.