The glass necklace [FLAG submarine fibre-optic link]

The longest ever man-made structure is being assembled in the world's most ambitious undersea lightwave communications system. When completed in 1997, the system will link Great Britain and Japan by a complex undersea optical-fiber cable that will span 27,300 km-more than two-thirds of the Earth's circumference. Called the fiber-optic link around the globe (FLAG), it will snake in eight sections through the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean and the Red Seas, the Indian Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean. The authors describe how the backbone of FLAG is third-generation transoceanic optical-fiber cable technology.<
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