New York-based Nynex Corp, stymied in its attempt to hold the US end of Cable & Wireless Plc’s PTAT-1 transatlantic fibre optic cable – its share ended up with Sprint Corp – because of the terms of the AT&T Co anti-trust consent decree, is determined to have a fibre cable of its own and is now proposing a monster, which will keep well away from the US and out of reach of Judge Greene and his ilk. It plans to hold between 25% and 50% of Fiberoptic Link Around the Globe or Flag, a 120,000-circuit cable that will originate in the UK, stop off at Portugal, Spain, Gibralter, Italy, Egypt, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philipppines and Korea, and terminate in Japan. The cable will be built like the New York Subway with two fibre pairs, one for local traffic between the stopping-off points, the other for express traffic. The construction costs are put at some $1,000m, and the Wall Street Journal says Marubeni Corp of Japan and Dallah-Al Baraka Group of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia want in. Work is to start in 1994, for 1996 completion.
