Plans for two fibre optic telephone cables to loop the Pacific have been announced by AT&T Co, Kokusai Denshin Denwa, Australia’s Overseas Telecommunications Commission and Telecoms New Zealand. One cable, to be completed in 1993, would link New Zealand to Hawaii, a distance of 5,300 miles, the other, in 1996, would link Australia with Guam in the western Pacific. The total of commissioning and laying the two cables is estimated at about $432m.
