FLAG Telecom (Nasdaq: FTHL; LSE: FTL), a global network services provider and independent carriers' carrier announced that the company has successfully achieved the final mid-Atlantic splice of the Southern loop of the FLAG Atlantic-1 cable system (FA-1).
FA-1 is a multi-terabit dual cable system connecting London, Paris and New York. The North cable of FLAG Atlantic-1 entered into commercial service in June 2001 and is now carrying commercial traffic. The final splice of the South cable brings FA-1 one step closer to the RFS date for the full loop system, which is expected to be in the third quarter of this year. FLAG Telecom's initial lit capacity on the system will be 160Gbps, with an upgrade to 280Gbps scheduled for the first quarter of 2002.
Designed as a loop system of three self-healing, high-capacity loops with twin terrestrial access points, FA-1 carries fully protected voice, high-speed data and video traffic. Stretching over approximately 14,500kms between Europe and the US, the cable allows seamless connections to almost all major world business centres in the United States, Europe, and other countries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific regions. The FA-1 cable is highly resilient, with no single point of failure throughout the system. It is insulated from weather conditions and electromagnetic interference and is proactively monitored from FLAG Telecom's Network Operations Centres. Using Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM), FA-1's capacity can accommodate the rapidly growing Internet traffic and other data-rich applications such as videoconferencing, multimedia, medical and business imaging, as well as traditional voice and data. Each cable is capable of transporting either 200 hours of digital video, 30 million clear voice channels, or more than 2 trillion bits of IP or data traffic per second. The total cost of the project was $1.1 billion.
About FLAG Telecom:
FLAG Telecom is a global network services provider and independent carriers' carrier providing products and services to the international carrier community, ASPs and ISPs across an international network platform designed to support the next generation of IP over optical data networks. For more information, visit www.flagtelecom.com.