Plans for the world's most advanced transatlantic telecoms cable costing up to £800 million sterling (euro 1.26 billion) were unveiled by Cable & Wireless today.
The British telecommunications giant said it was spending £300 million on the 13,000 kilometre cable, known as Apollo. It is designed for Internet and data traffic and will have 25 per cent more capacity than other systems.
"Together with project financing from French equipment maker Alcatel and other expenses, the cost of the cable will rise to around £800 million pounds once it is fully upgraded," said Mr Alan Robinson, a C&W vice-president.
The cable, which is due to begin service in the summer of 2002, adds to the billions of pounds C&W is investing to make its global network the most advanced in the world.
Although wholesale prices for cable bandwidth fell about 30 per cent last year because of rising capacity, C&W said demand was forecast to double every year as business use of Internet communications booms.
Reuters