Return to laserlines CVS log

Up to [Research Unix] / researchv10no / cmd / ap / apkeys

researchv10 Norman

d a AM-LaserLines     06-24 0301
^AM-Laser Lines,310<
^AT&T Announces Laser Communications Network for Northeast<
	   SOMERSET, N.J. (AP) _ By 1983, people in Washington and New York
will be communicating by telephone over Bell System laser-powered
cables that can carry up to 80,000 conversations on a single
hair-thin strand of glass.
	   The new network described Tuesday will link Boston and
Washington through a half-inch cable that carries information on
pulses of light along the glass strands.
	   ``We're entering the age of photonics _ carrying communications
on pulses of light, rather than as electrical signals,'' said
Richard K. Jacobsen, vice president of American Telephone &
Telegraph's long lines department.
	   ``Eventually, lightwave communications may offer a high-quality,
low-cost way to bring a variety of improved voice, data and video
services to customers in offices, shops and homes.''
	   The laser-powered cable lines will be inserted in existing Bell
circuits in all but 97 miles of the 611-mile Washington-to-Boston
network, Jacobsen said.
	   The first leg of the northeastern corridor will run from
Washington through Baltimore, Wilmington, Del., Trenton and Newark
to New York City. It is scheduled for completion in 1983, Bell
officials said.
	   By 1984, the system will stretch through White Plains, N.Y.,
Bridgeport, Conn., New Haven, Conn., Hartford, Conn., Springfield,
Mass., Worchester, Mass., and Cambridge, Mass. to Boston, Jacobsen
said.
	   He estimated the system would save Bell at least $49 million in
construction and operating costs by 1990. ``By building a single
lightwave system _ instead of separate facilities _ the overall
cost to the Bell System ... will be greatly reduced.''
	   The project is a combined effort of AT&T and seven local Bell
system companies. Bell plans to extend the system to the southern
and western United States in the next few years and install an
undersea system to handle trans-Atlantic calls by 1988, officials
said.
	   AP-NR-06-24 1238EDT<

This archive runs on limited infrastructure. Preserving old code on modern bandwidth. Automated agents are requested to crawl responsibly.