Hi Francois, The answer is yes. The cost of reaching Asian via the US was and is still much lower than via the cables that hug the Africain cost. And since Europe had a lot of traffic terminating in the US, it made more sense to throw it all that way than split into two major routes. Finally, a lot of European traffic is handed off to Asian backbones at the US West Coast peering points. There is no need to carry all the way to Asian since the Asian carriers have a huge presense at PAIX and other West Coast sites. Regards, Roderick S. Beck Director of European Sales Hibernia Atlantic 13-15, rue Sedaine, 75011 Paris http://www.hiberniaatlantic.com Wireless: 1-212-444-8829. French Wireless: 33-6-14-33-48-97. AOL Messenger: GlobalBandwidth rod.beck@hiberniaatlantic.com rodbeck@erols.com ``Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.'' Albert Einstein.