Verizon Business Plays Key Role to Deliver Trans-Pacific Express Submarine Cable Network to Industry

Company Is U.S. Landing Party and Manages Network Operations Center for Highest Capacity Cable System Between the United States and Mainland China

As a founding member of the Trans-Pacific Express Cable Consortium, Verizon Business has played a key role during the last two years in helping to design, engineer, build and prepare the 18,000 kilometer (11,000 mile) Trans-Pacific Express cable network, which is now ready for service. The TPE cable connects the United States to mainland China, South Korea and Taiwan.

Teaming up with five other founding TPE Consortium members - China Telecom, China, Netcom, China Unicom, Korea Telecom and Chunghwa Telecom (Taiwan) - Verizon Business helped select the network route, coordinate the engineering and design, and became the U.S. landing party by selecting Nedonna Beach, Ore., as the U.S. landing site for the submarine cable. Verizon Business also plays a critical role managing the TPE network operations center in the U.S.

“As the only U.S.-based founding member of the consortium, we were able to help guide the direction of the TPE cable and provide all U.S. operational needs for the TPE Consortium,” said Ihab Tarazi, Verizon Business vice president of global network planning.

“We have a dedicated group of Verizon Business engineers and submarine cable experts who teamed with other consortium members to design, engineer and build this entire cable system with our cable supplier in record time,” he said. “We are involved in more than 65 submarine cable systems around the world, but this TPE cable network is one of the most aggressive submarine cable builds we’ve worked on in the last 15 years.”

The first TPE cable was placed in the water off the South Korean coast in September 2007, and the final splice was completed in April 2008 allowing the first light to be transmitted between Chongming, China and Nedonna Beach, Ore. After extensive testing, the consortium today declared the system ready for service. (See separate news release.)

Verizon Business’ leadership in working on major submarine cable projects provides numerous benefits to the company and its multinational business and government customers.

“We are in a position to ensure suppliers meet our goals and provide a quality system with an on-time delivery while also meeting the Verizon Business network needs allowing our customers to take full advantage of the cable system and the Verizon Business network,” Tarazi said. “We designed this system to connect directly to our Verizon Business ultra-long-haul and global mesh networks to give our customers an industry leading experience.”

As the TPE landing party in the U.S., Verizon Business also is responsible for activities at the cable station in Oregon, on the U.S. network cable routes and in the TPE network operations center, all of which allow the company to provide a high level of network management functions for its customers. “With the integration of cable station activities and the network operations center, we are able to see everything that occurs on this TPE system and can provide immediate action for our customers,” Tarazi said.

The TPE cable is using the latest optical technology to provide greater capacity at high speeds to meet the dramatic increase in demand for IP, data and voice communications in the fast-growing Asia-Pacific countries. The operating capacity of the system - the largest ever built directly between the U.S. and mainland China, South Korea and Taiwan - is 3.2 terabits per second (Tbps). With a minimum of 80 wavelengths per fiber, TPE has the highest wave-density of any submarine cable in the world of this length.

The next planned phase of the TPE system, with the addition of NTT Communications to the consortium, will provide new connections from Japan to China, Taiwan and South Korea.

“We knew this TPE cable network would be important to the communications industry and all companies expanding in the northern Asia growth region,” Tarazi said. “Our customers will benefit from the increased capacity, diversity and speed of this cable system.”