TPE (cable system)

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 (AT&T and NTT joined in March 2008) [http://www.cedmagazine.com/ATT-NTT-join-TPE-Consortium.aspx] . [http://www.telegeography.com/cu/article.php?article_id=15965 Trans-Pacific Express deal signed for US-China cable: CommsUpdate : TeleGeography Research ] ] Ownership of the cable is evenly split between the 6 participants. Construction of this 11,000 miles (approx. 17,700km) line was completed in September, 2008 [http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200809290229DOWJONESDJONLINE000038_FORTUNE5.htm|Verizon, KT, 4 Others Complete Rollout Of Trans-Pacific Cable] ] .

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. Most links to China have to go through a hub in Japan, Verizon Business says, and access tops out at 155 Mbit/s. [http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/121806-verizon-business.html Verizon Business building $500 million terabit cable to China - Network World ] ] 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. [http://www.dailywireless.org/2006/12/18/new-china-transpacific-cable dailywireless.org » New China Transpacific Cable ] ] It will be the first next-generation undersea optical cable system directly linking the U.S. and China. [http://www.marketavenue.cn/upload/NEWS_27001.htm Trans-Pacific Express Approved To Land In U.S. - MarketAvenue ] ] It is also the first major undersea system to land on the U.S. West Coast in more than seven years. [http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/11/trans-pacific-express-submarine-cable-system-gets-fcc-approval Trans-Pacific Express submarine cable system gets FCC approval - Engadget ] ] Initially, the Trans-Pacific Express cable will be configured to handle traffic at 1.28 terabits per second (Tbit/s), 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.

Landing Points

The landing points of the cable are located in:
#Chongming, Shanghai Municipality, China
#Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
#Tanshui, Taiwan Province, ROC
#Keoje, South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea
#Nedonna Beach, Oregon, USA

References