FCC approves Verizon's U.S.-China submarine cable system

High-speed cable system will connect U.S. and China

Verizon Business announced today that it has gained final approval from the Federal Communications Commission to activate and operate a trans-Pacific cable system that directly links the United States with mainland China.

According to Verizon Business, the FCC has granted the company a landing license that will provide it with “final authority” to run its trans-Pacific cable system. The cable system, which will run from Oregon through South Korea, Taiwan, China and other East Asian countries, will eventually be able “to support the equivalent of 62 million simultaneous phone calls, more than 60 times the overall capacity of the existing cable directly linking the U.S. and China,” the company says. Additionally, the company says that Verizon Business customers will be able to access the cable system at wavelengths of up to 10Gbps.

Verizon first announced its intention to construct the cable system, known as the Trans-Pacific Express, in December 2006. At the time, Verizon Business said the system would cost $500 million to construct and would initially provide capacity of up to 1.28Tbps, with the eventual goal of having design capacity of up to 5.12Tbps. The goal of the cable system, says Verizon, is to meet bandwidth demand for IP, data and voice business services between the United States and the Asia-Pacific region.

"This next-generation undersea system… will provide our multinational customers doing business in the fast-growing Asia-Pacific region with data services that operate at faster speeds, with even more reliability and more diversity,” says Verizon Business President John Killian.

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Verizon Business announced today that it has gained final approval from the Federal Communications Commission to activate and operate a trans-Pacific cable system that directly links the United States with mainland China.

According to Verizon Business, the FCC has granted the company a landing license that will provide it with “final authority” to run its trans-Pacific cable system. The cable system, which will run from Oregon through South Korea, Taiwan, China and other East Asian countries, will eventually be able “to support the equivalent of 62 million simultaneous phone calls, more than 60 times the overall capacity of the existing cable directly linking the U.S. and China,” the company says. Additionally, the company says that Verizon Business customers will be able to access the cable system at wavelengths of up to 10Gbps.

Verizon first announced its intention to construct the cable system, known as the Trans-Pacific Express, in December 2006. At the time, Verizon Business said the system would cost $500 million to construct and would initially provide capacity of up to 1.28Tbps, with the eventual goal of having design capacity of up to 5.12Tbps. The goal of the cable system, says Verizon, is to meet bandwidth demand for IP, data and voice business services between the United States and the Asia-Pacific region.

"This next-generation undersea system… will provide our multinational customers doing business in the fast-growing Asia-Pacific region with data services that operate at faster speeds, with even more reliability and more diversity,” says Verizon Business President John Killian.

Construction for the system began last September when the first cables for the submarine network were laid off the Korean coast. According to Verizon, the cable system is due to be completed by August of this year, and will eventually total 17,000 kilometers of cable.

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