Telecom Eireann is putting around ?20m into the PTAT-1 transatlantic fibre optic cable venture in order to have a spur from the cable landed in the south of Ireland. The spur will consist of two 420Mbps fibre cables, which will give Ireland its first direct fibre optic link to the US. PTAT-1 is owned by Cable and Wireless and PTAT Systems Inc of McClean, Virginia formerly Tel-Optik – although Bell operating company Nynex Corp has submitted an application to the US Federal Communications Commission to buy PTAT Systems’ share and is awaiting a waiver from Judge Greene to allow it to take the stake. In the present frosty climate between the Bells and the judge, approval is far from certain. The Irish agreement follows on from a tripartite deal signed by Cable and Wireless with the French, Portuguese and Dutch public telecommunications authorities in late November 1987 to lay underwater fibre optic cable between the four countries. PTAT-1 is due to be laid and operational by mid-1989, and a PTAT 2 is planned to follow in 1992.
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