FASTER transpacific submarine cable system ready for service

The FASTER submarine cable system, which a consortium of six companies that includes Google commissioned NEC Corp. to build, will begin service today. The 9,000-km transpacific undersea cable network will connect Oregon with two landing points in Japan, one each in the Chiba and Mie prefectures.

The system offers connections to major hubs on the U.S. West Coast, including Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Portland, and Seattle. On the other side, links also will connect to major cities in Japan. Connections to nearby submarine networks also offer access to other Asian locations.

Joining Google in the sponsoring consortium are China Mobile International, China Telecom Global, Global Transit, KDDI, and Singtel. The group consortium announced the project in August 2014 with a goal to support digital coherent transmission technology, including the use of specially optimized optical fibers. The resulting six-fiber-pair submarine network leverages low loss fiber that doesn't require a dispersion compensation section to support a capacity of 60 Tbps.

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