AT&T Co and researchers from Kokusai Denshin Denwa Co Ltd say they have successfully tested a new fibre optic repeater system in the laboratory, proving the feasibility of a much higher capacity transpacific undersea cable system: the system replaces electrical repeaters, which have to convert the signal to electricity and back to light, with optical amplifiers that simply consist of a coating of the rare earth element Erbium on lengths of fibre inserted into the cable; the team linked two independently-developed 2,800 mile test beds at Bell Laboratories in Freehold, New Jersey to create a 5,600 mile test bed that ran error-free at nearly 10 times the speed of the transatlantic fibre optic cable that was opened in March; it was also the world’s longest optically-amplified system, the company said.
