More than 50 telecom companies signed a contract to provide a fiber optic cable link between Europe and the US for $1.5 billion. The link will help decrease waiting time on the World Wide Web.
The TAT-14 cable will have a 640-Gb capacity, about 80 percent of which will be designated for the Internet. It also will have the ability to carry 7.7 million telephone calls simultaneously. Spearheading the project are AT&T Corp., British Telecom, Cable & Wireless Plc., Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, KPN MCII, Pacific Gateway Exchange, Sprint Corp., Swisscom and Telia.
The cable will link Germany, the UK, Denmark, France and The Netherlands with the US, spanning 22,000 miles. It will be operational by the end of 2000.