Alcatel Submarcom, the joint venture between Cables de Lyon SA and Alcatel CIT SA of the French Alcatel Group, has been awarded a $105m contract to supply an underwater fibre optic link between France, Portugal and Morocco. Four countries, (France through FCR, the UK through Mercury, Portugal via CPRM and Morocco courtesy of ONPT) are investing in the system, which should go into operation in June of 1992 and will consist of two cables running separately from Portugal onwards. One of these cables, with two fibre pairs, will connect Portugal with France, while the other will have three pairs of fibres, connecting with Madeira and Morocco – the third pair being held in reserve for future extensions. The underwater link will total 2,200 miles working at 560Mbps with 53 repeaters. In addition to this latest contract signed in Rabat, Alcatel Submarcom already has several agreements for 6,900 miles of underwater fibre optic cable which will also start functioning in the middle of 1992. Although these are worth a total of $400m, that sum does not, cover the company’s investment inresearch and development for underwater systems.
