STC Submarine Systems – which opened a base in the Pacific Northwest of the US for just that reason – and NEC Corp will share the $350m contract to lay the 5,200 mile PPAC-1 pan-Pacific fibre optic cable, Pacific Telecom Cable Inc has announced: Pacific Telecom Cable is 80% owned by the Pacific Telecom Inc arm of PacifiCorp with the rest held by Cable & Wireless Plc and the C&W-C Itoh-led International Digital Communications Inc; work will start at once with completion set for December 1990.