A group of phone companies are going to lay an undersea telecommunications cable directly linking China with the United States.
"Mom? Is that you?"
The goal is for the fiber-optic cable to be laid in time for the Beijing Olympics, which begin in August.
The Trans-Pacific Express it is called.
The cable will have 60 times the capacity of current cable connections between the US and China.
Current cable links run through Japan...China's rival....and China wants its own independent connection.
The developers are:
China Telecom Ltd.,
China Netcom Ltd.
China Unicom Ltd.,
Verizon Communications Inc. of the United States,
Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom Co.
South Korea's KT Corp.
South Korea and Taiwan will be hooked up, but NOT Japan.
Verizon says the system will cost about $500 million and stretch about 11,000 miles.
"Mom!? Is that you?"
So, who's going to pay this $500 million price?
