Construction Begins on Pan-European Fiber Optic Network

London-based i-21 Future Communication has begun building what it says will be Europe's largest and most ambitious broadband network. Planning to "go live" next May and to have 90 percent of the coverage available by the end of 2000, the company projects that the network will carry more than 1000 Tb/s of traffic, and will link 70 cities in 17 countries and up to 200 points of presence with 8 million km of optical fiber. Partners in the $2 billion, two-phase project are Alcatel Optronics of Nozay, France, and Corning Inc. of Corning, N.Y. The first phase will cost $1.5 billion.