TPE (cable system)

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TPE or Trans-Pacific Express is a submarine telecommunications cable linking China, South Korea, Taiwan, and USA. The line is a $500 million USD joint venture between 6 telecommunication companies (China Telecom, China Netcom, China Unicom, Chunghwa Telecom, Korea Telecom, and Verizon Communications).^[1] Ownership of the cable is evenly split between the 6 participants. Construction of this 11,000 miles (approx. 17,700km) line is already underway, and is anticipated to be completed and in service by August, in advance of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.^[2]

While 5,547 gigabits per second of capacity is available across the Atlantic Ocean, only 2,726 gigabits per second exists across the Pacific Ocean.^[1] Most links to China have to go through a hub in Japan, Verizon Business says, and access tops out at 155 Mbit/s.^[3] TPE will be more than 60 times the overall capacity of the existing cable directly linking the U.S. and China, and thus it will be a major enhancement to the current cable systems between the two nations.^[4] It will be the first next-generation undersea optical cable system directly linking the U.S. and China.^[5] It is also the first major undersea system to land on the U.S. West Coast in more than seven years.^[6] Initially, the Trans-Pacific Express cable will be configured to handle traffic at 1.28 terabits per second (Tbps), but the system will have design capacity of up to 5.12 Tbit/s. Customers can also book individual connections running at 10 Gbit/s.^[1]

[edit] Landing Points

The landing points of the cable are located in:

1. Chongming, Shanghai Municipality, China
2. Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
3. Tanshui, Taiwan Province, ROC
4. Keoje, South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea
5. Nedonna Beach, Oregon, USA

[edit] References