Alcatel Alsthom (Paris, France), currently building a Pan-American fiber-optic network linking the

Alcatel Alsthom (Paris, France), currently building a Pan-American fiber-optic network linking the Caribbean, Central and South America, will supply Cable & Wireless plc (Vienna, VA) 128,000 Alcatel 1000 digital telephone lines for expanding Panama`s telephone network. The fiber-optic network system will use sdh technology to transmit voice, data, and images at rates to OC-48 (2.5 Gbits/ sec) to meet a growing demand for overall communications in the region. Alcatel was also awarded a long-distance phone network construction contract by Guatel, the Guatemalan telco, which calls for the deployment of 1200 route-km of fiber-optic cable. Separately, Alcatel sealed a contract with Telecom Egypt, as part of the Nile Vision project, to provide over 100,000 lines of its Alcatel 1000 switching systems, optical-fiber sdh, and Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy transmission networks.