The Africa one undersea fiber-optic cable project is a step closer to becoming a reality now that 26 countries and international operators have signed a memorandum of understanding concerning the proposed 35,000-km network. The network is designed to encircle the continent and connect coastal and land-locked countries as well as islands. According to the International Telecommunication Union, an agency of the United Nations, the network will be based on Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (sdh). A single fiber pair is expected to provide more than 240,000 full-bandwidth 64-kbit/sec voice circuits. The undersea cable will contain two fiber pairs. The first year of network operation is scheduled for 1999.