Telia's new transatlantic cable secures Internet traffic to the U.S.

Telia's new transatlantic cable secures Internet traffic to the U.S. A new transatlantic cable - TAT-14 - will secure the growing need for Internet transmission capacity between Europe and the United States. With this new cable, Telia International Carrier has connected its Viking Network between the two continents. TAT-14 is one of the largest submarine cable projects in the history of the Telia Group. TAT-14 is a system of cables for telephony and data communications traffic requiring high transmission speeds across the Atlantic. The system connects Telia International Carrier's multi-fibre network - the Viking Network - in Europe and the U.S. During the summer Telia has started to transfer transatlantic traffic to TAT-14, which is now in full operation. With TAT-14, Telia International Carrier has now transformed the Viking Network into a single homogeneous network platform covering both the U.S. and Europe and giving Telia the possibility to offer customers end- to-end solutions across two continents. With the new platform, Telia can offer customers its own high-quality connections city-to-city from San Francisco to Moscow, for example. "We are observing a growing need for mainly IP transmission capacity for transatlantic Internet traffic," says Lars Rydin, President of Telia International Carrier. "By having a substantial ownership stake in TAT- 14, we have secured access to capacity for a long time to come. TAT-14 will benefit our own growing IP traffic, as well as enhance our ability to sell capacity between Europe and the U.S. to other operators." Facts: The TAT-14 system has a total capacity of more than 1.3 Tbit/s, of which half can be utilised for protected traffic (traffic that would not be affected in the event of a break in the cable). The system has the capacity to handle data equivalent to the content of more than 200 DVDs per second. Telia's own capacity in the TAT-14 system is approximately 38 Gbit/s for protected traffic and twice that for unprotected traffic. The TAT-14 cable runs in a ring over the Atlantic and connects five different cable stations in Europe and two in the U.S. Telia International Carrier owns one of the European cable stations, situated in Western Jutland in Denmark. Telia International Carrier has built its own cable system up to this station. In the U.S., Telia International Carrier has its own fibre capacity to both cable stations, which are located outside New York. Technical Facts, TAT-14: Newly developed technology has been deployed to manage the extremely large capacity of the TAT-14 system. The technical solution includes new types of fibre optic cable and broadband and low-noise optical repeaters. Data is transmitted over 16 different wavelengths on each optical fibre. The transmission speed on each wavelength is 10 Gbit/s. The cable system contains a total of eight fibres. Light signals weaken when transmitted through fibre and must therefore be amplified around every 50 km. The system utilises 278 repeaters for this purpose. Many different types of cable are used. A simpler type of cable can be used in the Atlantic, where the cable lies relatively undisturbed. However, in the European part of the system, where there is a substantial amount of fishing with trawlers, the cable is equipped with steel reinforcement and is also buried about 60 cm deep in the bottom of the ocean. The diameter of the different cable types varies from 23 mm to 60 mm. The cable has a total length of about 15,400 km. Special ships are used to lay the cable. These cable-laying ships can load a substantial quantity of cable and also operate in difficult weather conditions. The ship pulls a plough across the bottom of the ocean through which the cable is fed directly into the furrow. For further information journalists can contact: Magnus Nerell, Telia International Carrier, phone +46 8 713 33 41 ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2001/08/07/20010807BIT00550/bit0001.doc http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2001/08/07/20010807BIT00550/bit0001.pdf