*********** +++++++++++++++++++++ 061096B.ENG + Source: ONR Asia + *********** +++++++++++++++++++++ Contributory Categories: GEO Country: China From: Nikkei Weekly 10 June 1996 p. 22 KEYWORDS: China: Offshore Cable, Fiber optics +++++ CHINA TELECOM ENTITY SEEKS PARTNERS FOR CABLE PROJECT by Kenji Yuasa Staff Writer Beijing-- China United Telecomunications Corp. (China Unicom) was seeking foreign partners to help it lay 7,500km of underwater optical cable that will link 27 coastal cities by 2000, officials disclosed. The project is estimated to cost more than 2 billion yuan ($241.3 million). China Unicom wants a cable with throughput of 2.5 gigabits per second running from Dandong in the province of Liaon'mg, close to the North Korean border, to Fangcheng in Guangxi Province, near the Vietnam border. The company plans to ask foreign enterprizes to build more than half the cable. It offers to reimburse construction cost from future telecom-service revenue. When completed, the link will have a capacity of 720,000 circuits. Work on the first section, covering the southern boom cities of Zhuhai and Shenzhen in the province of Guangzhou, is expected to begin by the end of this year. China Unicom was established by the Electronics Industry Ministry and Chinese private business. CMR Disclaimer================================================== This document could contain information all or part of which is or may be copyrighted in a number of countries. Therefore, commercial copying and/or further dissemination of this text is expressly prohibited without obtaining the permission of the copyright owner(s) except in the United States and other countries for certain personal and educational uses as prescribed by the "fair copy" provisions of that countries Copyright Statues. ================================================================ ************** END Msg. B.ENG **************