Pacific link

Pacific link

Kokusai Denshin Denwa and AT&T will build an advanced optical system across the Pacific, aiming to link Japan and the United States by the year 2000. The system is expected to have a transmission capacity of 100 gigabits per second--10 times the capacity of the current system--equal to 1.2 million 64-kilobit- per-second telephone lines. It will use optical-soliton technology to eliminate breaks in signal waves in long-distance transmission. Construction is expected to begin by 1998.