Alcatel and Telecommunicaciones Marinas SA (Temasa) have been awarded a $5 million contract for a new submarine cable link between Sesimbra and Lagos in Portugal. Alcatel will supply 320 km of cables and optical-amplifier equipment in the terminal stations. Companhia Portuguesa Radio Marconi SA, which awarded the contract, will install the land cable and equipment in the terminal stations. Temasa will be responsible for the marine installation, using its cableship CS Teneo. The new link is scheduled for completion in May 1998 and will operate via sdh at a rate of 2.5 Gbits/sec. The system will initially carry traffic over one of the six pairs of fibers in the cable, with subsequent pairs being brought into use according to traffic demands.