March 31, 2003--FLAG Telecom Group Ltd. has announced a capacity expansion to key segments of its FLAG Europe-Asia (FEA) cable system, which links the telecommunications markets of Western Europe and Japan through the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia, and China. The upgrade will double the system's capacity on key segments from the UK to the Middle East from 10 Gbits/sec to 20 Gbits/sec. Fujitsu Ltd., the contractor for this phase of the capacity expansion program, anticipates that FEA's original capacity can be increased by a factor of through the introduction of DWDM technology.
This project is a part of a three-phase capacity expansion program for FEA. In the first phase, which has been operational since February 15, 2003, the segments from Skewjack, UK, to Alexandria, Egypt, were upgraded from 10 Gbits/sec to 20 Gbits/sec. The second phase, for which coordination with FEA's landing partners has started, is anticipated to upgrade the segments from Alexandria to Fujairah, also from 10 Gbits/sec to 20 Gbits/sec. The third phase is expected to upgrade the segments from Fujairah to Hong Kong on an as-needed basis. An aggressive plan to implement the first phase of the upgrade within three months was successfully achieved on schedule.
"Upgrading FEA enables FLAG Telecom to target future demand for high quality transport services, especially in the Middle Eastern markets," contends Andrew Evans, FLAG Telecom's chief technology officer. "By applying technology that is available today, we expect to be able to add capacity significantly in excess of the original design capacity of FEA in a cost effective manner, and with virtually no impact on our customers."