ChinaNetcom
Latest
China Unicom takes the hint, buys China Netcom
Taking a cue from the government to consolidate resources in an effort to get the 3G show on the road, China's China Unicom has kicked off a deal with China Netcom to buy out the landline carrier in a stock swap valued at a staggering $56 billion; the whole thing is expected to close by the end of the year. Separately, China Telecom will swipe China Unicom's CDMA network for about $6.3 billion, setting the stage for a new carrier alignment in the country that'll see three companies align as the 3G powerhouses to serve a grand total of 1.3 billion people. Meanwhile, China Mobile is plodding right along with its TD-SCDMA rollout for the Olympics, so there's really no telling how many standards Chinese subscribers will end up dealing with when all is said and done.[Via mocoNews]Read - China Unicom / China Netcom dealRead - China Unicom / China Telecom deal
Trans-Pacific Express submarine cable system gets FCC approval
It's not like we haven't seen consortiums working to establish better links between America and Asia, but the more the merrier, right? Apparently, Verizon Business has just recently received the all-important thumbs-up from the FCC to "activate and operate the Trans-Pacific Express submarine cable system in the US." The TPE cable is hailed as "the first next-generation undersea optical cable system directly linking the US and mainland China," and is the first major system of its kind to land on America's West Coast (Oregon, to be precise) in over seven years. For those curious, the 10,563-mile submarine communications cable will be able to support the equivalent of 62 million simultaneous phone calls -- which is "more than 60 times the overall capacity of the existing cable directly linking the US and China" -- and will initially provide capacity of up to 1.28Tbps. So, when will this thing be up and running? If all goes to plan, it should be fully operational by August (you know, prior to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing).[Image courtesy of Devicepedia]
