Paris, Jan 15 -- Alcatel, vendor of optical networking elements, has announced a turnkey contract worth several hundred million dollars for a transatlantic network named Apollo that is being developed by Cable & Wireless, a global telecommunications business. With a total capacity of 3.2 Tb/s on each transatlantic leg -- 25 percent more than other systems -- the network will allow for the transportation of data between North America and Europe. I n addition, a four year contract has been signed to ensure a fully customized marine maintenance of the system by Alcatel. The network is based on dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) technology developed in Alcatel's research laboratories. The network will consist of four fiber pairs equipped with 80 wavelength at 10Gb/s. It will be the first time ever that so many channels will cross the Atlantic on a single fiber pair, said Alcatel, giving it the highest capacity and lower unit cost of any transatlantic system.