Make sense what you said, I'm just pretty sure that eventually they'll come up with a way to put 100 to 500 waves on it. Frank -----Original Message----- From: Rod Beck [mailto:Rod.Beck@hiberniaatlantic.com] Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007 1:57 PM To: frnkblk@iname.com; michael.dillon@bt.com; nanog@merit.edu Subject: RE: New TransPacific Cable Projects: Here is a TeleGeography news article worth a quick read: http://www.telegeography.com/cu/article.php?article_id=19783&email=html It appears that that article assumes that capacity will not be increased by WDM products...have those that been applied on those links already reached the cables' maximum capabilities based on current technology? Frank I think you are going to find that the numbe of waves that can put on an undersea fiber is a function of the distance between the landing stations. Obviously most TransPacific cables traverse greater distances and hence probably cannot carry as many waves as TransAtlantic cables. There is also a need for cables that are diverse from the existing cables. So lighting more capacity will not solve the physical diversity problems that were highlighted by the December earthquakes. Most modern undersea cables have four fiber pairs per cable. And each of those fiber pairs can handle from 24 to 80 10 gig waves. Hibernia can do 80 10 gig waves, but only becuase we replaced the undersea DWDM kit deployed at our landing stations. Regards, - Roderick.