AT&T Inc. has announced the expansion of its global network capacity via participation in an industry consortium supporting a new undersea communications cable spanning the Pacific Ocean. The Trans-Pacific Express Submarine Cable Consortium today announced that the first phase of the Trans-Pacific Express (TPE) submarine cable system is ready for service, directly connecting China, the United States, Korea and Taiwan.

The TPE system is designed to provide greater capacity and higher speeds to meet the dramatic increase in demand for IP, data and voice communications with the Asia-Pacific region. The high-bandwidth fiber-optic submarine cable can carry up to 5.12 terabits per second over a total of 18,000 kilometers.

To meet its customers' needs, AT&T is strengthening its global network by offering more capacity and diversity throughout the world. TPE routes will enhance AT&T's expansive, growing submarine cable network throughout Asia, providing higher capacity and diversity in the Asia-Pacific and trans-Pacific regions. The submarine cable investments will be used to extend AT&T's intelligent optical network with optical mesh restoration.

"We are excited that the first phase of the Trans-Pacific Express is complete and ready for our customers' use," said Kaveh Hushyar, senior vice president of network planning and engineering for AT&T. "AT&T today carries more than 15.8 petabytes of IP and data traffic on an average business day, and this traffic volume is growing at more than 50 percent year over year. Our participation in the TPE network helps to ensure that we're continually staying several steps ahead of our customers' ever-growing global communications needs."

AT&T owns or leases capacity on more than 80 submarine cable systems, which span more than 478,000 fiber-route miles around the globe, including several submarine cable routes that the company uses to carry traffic between the Asia-Pacific region and North America. The company has planned a $1 billion investment in 2008 to continue expanding its industry-leading network of solutions for multinational companies.