北京时间9月29日消息，据国外媒体报道，全球第六大电信公司韩国KT本周一表示，跨越太平洋的高速海底光缆系统已经竣工，这个名为Trans-Pacific Express的光纤网络将直接把中国、美国、韩国和中国台湾连接起来。

这个海底光缆总长18000公里，将为中国和美国之间提供高速直连线路。目前中美两国之间的多数网络通信必须绕道香港或日本，经常造成比较大的网络延时问题。

KT公司是韩国目前最大的固网宽带服务提供商，于2006年12月与美国Verizon Business、中国电信、中国网通、中国联通、台湾电信等6家国际通信运营商，签署了TPE光缆建设协议，并在过去的22个月一直推进该项目。

据韩国KT表示，按照TPE光缆建设协议，5亿美金的工程投资成本将由6家运营商平均分担。

Verizon在2006年表示，这个新的光缆系统的设计容量是6200万个并发电话通讯，为当时中美线路容量的60多倍。

据韩国KT表示，今年初美国AT&T与日本NTT通信公司也加入到该项目中，通过日本NTT的追加投资，2009年年底这个海底光缆网络将延长至日本。

之前的一篇文章：Trans-Pacific Express Nears Completion

Verizon Business announced that it is working closely with its Asian partners to activate the U.S.-mainland China portion of the Trans-Pacific Express submarine cable in July.

“The new system will use the latest optical technology 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” said Fred Briggs, Verizon Business executive vice president of operations and technology, in a statement issued to media.

TPE is the first next-generation, high-capacity undersea system to link the United States with mainland China, Taiwan and South Korea. Verizon Business teamed up with charter TPE Consortium team members — China Telecom, China Netcom, China Unicom, Korea Telecom and Chunghwa Telecom — to expedite the longest leg of the 18,000-kilometer cable system. The new fiber-optic cable can support the equivalent of 62 million simultaneous phone calls, more than 60 times the overall capacity of the existing cable directly linking the United States and China.

While the TPE will initially provide capacity of up to 1.28 Tbps when activated, the system will have design capacity of up to 5.12 Tbps to support future Internet growth and advanced applications such as video and e-commerce throughout the Asia-Pacific region. This also will be the first time individual customers can have direct submarine cable connectivity from the U.S. to China at wavelengths of up to 10 Gbps.