New undersea cable links from Global Crossing

New undersea cable links from Global Crossing

By GRACE F. MURPHY

Global Crossing Ltd., Bermuda, owner of the Atlantic Crossing (AC-1) submarine fiber-optic cable system now under construction, plans to add three new undersea cables connecting the United States with the Caribbean, Panama, and Japan.

Global Crossing recently announced plans to build the Mid-Atlantic Crossing, an undersea fiber-optic cable that will connect with AC-1. Service on AC-1, which spans more than 14,000 km and connects the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Germany, is scheduled to begin in May 1998. The system will be built in a self-healing ring configuration and use wavelength-division multiplexing (wdm) technology (see Lightwave, June 1997, page 7).

The Mid-Atlantic Crossing will link AC-1`s Brookhaven, Long Island, NY, landing point with TeleBermuda International (tbi) Ltd.`s cable station in Bermuda. The crossing will then connect Bermuda with sites in the Caribbean, Florida, and New York. Operation of the full system is projected to begin in the first half of 1999. Global Crossing and tbi will jointly buy and operate the new cable segments, and Global Crossing will sell capacity.

Pan-American Crossing

Global Crossing has also announced plans to build a private, 8000-km undersea fiber-optic network connecting California and Panama. The Pan-American Crossing (pac-1) will have landing stations in Mexico and other points in Central America. The cable, which will contain eight zero-dispersion-shifted fiber strands, is scheduled for full commercial service in 1999. It is expected to use wdm technology and include a dedicated pair of fiber-optic cables running between the United States and Panama.

pac-1 will create the first direct path from Latin America to the United States and Asia without additional transit fees, according to the company. Currently, traffic from Latin America must cross the United States through terrestrial networks before connecting with fiber-optic cables going to the Pacific Rim. Carriers sending traffic must pay a transit fee for the connection.

Pacific Crossing

Global Crossing`s fourth undersea fiber-optic system, Pacific Crossing (PC-1), will connect the United States with Japan. The privately owned and operated system will also be built with a self-healing ring configuration that uses wdm technology. It will have two landing points in both countries, and is scheduled for commercial service in 1999. Marubeni, a Japanese trading firm and partner in the Fiber-optic Link Around the Globe (flag) undersea cable, is also involved in the project.

Meanwhile, Global Crossing recently reached a $100 million purchase agreement with three shareholders of Unisource (ptt Telecom of the Netherlands, Telia of Sweden, and Swisscom of Switzerland) to purchase transatlantic capacity on AC-1 for voice, high-speed data, and video transmission. In addition to the capacity purchase, agreements signed include support services and maintenance operations at ptt Telecom BV`s cable station in Beverwijk, the Netherlands, and access for AC-1 customers to the pan-European fiber-optic network being built by Unisource that will connect major cities in Europe.

Global Crossing has also reached an agreement with Deutsche Telekom. Under the agreement, Deutsche Telekom will provide support and maintenance services for AC-1 at its Sylt, Germany, submarine cable station and allow AC-1 customers access to its inland networks. Deutsche Telekom also purchased capacity on AC-1 between the United States and Germany in order to enhance voice, data, and multimedia connectivity between Europe and the United States.

In a written statement, Deutsche Telekom senior executive director Rex Stephensen praised the agreement. "These arrangements demonstrate that Deutsche Telekom is able to find its way in a modern environment of telecommunications with competing carriers and competing cable systems," he said.

Private networks well placed

Thomas Soja, managing director of T. Soja and Associates, Brookline, MA, says the private undersea cables put Global Crossing in a unique situation. Soja says that, traditionally, carriers such as at&t, British Telecom, France Telecom, and Deutsche Telekom shared the costs of building an undersea cable and divided the capacity and payments according to each carrier`s traffic needs.

With the liberalization of the European telecommunications markets, former cooperators are now potential competitors, Soja says. "You`ve got owners who are potential competitors with other carriers, so there are some disincentives for other carriers to buy capacity on that system because they`re buying from their competitors." Competition is also a factor in semi-private cable systems such as Gemini, sponsored by WorldCom Inc. and Cable & Wireless, he says.

But since Global Crossing is not involved with a telecommunications sponsor in the pac-1 project, Soja says it can sell on an equal basis to all carriers, and carriers don`t have to worry about subsidizing competitors.

Soja says Global Crossing can offer attractive prices because it is a private system. "It has a lot more flexibility in that regard. The prices have been lower, and they can also get things done more quickly than in a consortium-style arrangement."

More than 80 carriers are on recent submarine cables such as tat-12, tpc-5, or sea-me-we-3. Construction, capacity, and maintenance agreements can become time-consuming when so many carriers are involved, Soja says. "With a private cable, they can act quickly, they can make the decisions, and move forward and get things implemented very quickly," he says.

Soja says the geographical placement of the new crossings seem to complement flag, which recently went online. "They`re kind of picking up where flag leaves off, but in a different vein. It`s simple capacity and pricing terms."

Global Crossing and the owners of semi-private cables will want to keep an eye on Project Oxygen, Soja says. The project is a proposed global optical-fiber super-Internet with 265 landing points in 171 countries or other locations (see related article, page 15). Owners of capacity on the system will also have voting rights on system operation. Although the project has the potential to change international communications, Soja says he foresees a short- to medium-term need for the private and semi-private services. "There will be a good period of time where we still see private cables and consortium cables," he says. "I see a variety of choices out there for carriers." q