AT&T Co says it has received a $170m contract to build the US half of the TAT-9 undersea fibre-optic cable to link North America with Europe – since AT&T will own 28% of the cable, it rather looks as if the company gave the contract to itself: it will manufacture and lay 3,000 miles of the 6,000-mile cable, with repeaters and other equipment, and the cable, with capacity of 80,000 concurrent phone calls, is due to come into service in 1991, and will link the US and Canada to the UK, France and Spain.
