Japanese trading house Marubeni Corp and three other companies are getting together to lay an undersea optical cable linking Japan and the US, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. The cable, called Pacific Crossing One, will connect Japan and the US at two landing points in each country and will eventually link major cities. KDD Submarine Cable Systems Inc and US companies Global Crossing Ltd and Tyco International Ltd are planning to set up a joint firm for the project in Bermuda with Marubeni. The cable is expected to cost about $1bn, with the two Japanese companies footing half the bill, and the Americans the other half. Construction will begin in April, with service expected to begin in 2000. The cable will be roughly 12,400 miles long and have a capacity of about 960,000 phone circuits and data throughput of 80 gigabits per second. Upon completion, the cable’s phone circuits will be wholesaled to telecom carriers in both countries.
