Ten companies involved with the White Plains, New York-based Baby Bell Nynex Corp’s Flag Fibre-optic Link Around the Globe cable project have signed a memorandum of understanding formalising their agreement to work jointly on its development and planning. The 10 are the Government of Gibraltar, Hong Kong Telecom International, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd of India, Indosat of Indonesia, Iritel SpA of Italy, International Digital Communications Inc, Japan, Telekom Malaysia Bhd, the Communications Authority of Thailand, Emirates Telecommunications Corp and Mercury Communications Ltd. Egypt, Saudi Arabia and South Korea are also said to ready to participate, and are expected to sign the agreement in early autumn. The memorandum sets the base for advanced cable planning activities, including a comprehensive survey of the marine route. The signatories have also held their first interim management meeting, one of a planned regular series to oversee and guide programme management phases of the project. Subcommittees have also been formed to address specific aspects of the cable programme. The $1,200m FLAG project currently has four investors: Nynex Network Systems; the Dallah Al Baraka Group of Jeddah; Gulf Associates Inc, and Japan’s Marubeni Corp. The cable is to be 18,000 miles long, connecting three continents through 13 landing points from the US eastward to Japan. Ironically, Nynex wanted to hold the US end of Mercury parent Cable & Wireless Plc’s PTAT-1 transatlantic fibre cable, but was forbidden from doing so by Judge Harold Greene, keeper of the purity of the anti-trust consent decree that broke up AT&T and the Bell System.
