Article Abstract:
Metropolitan Fiber Systems Inc announces it has readied Manhattan's third private fiber-optic telephone system. The high-capacity system will provide large corporations with inexpensive, reliable telecommunications connections to long-distance carriers and to the New York Telephone Company's switching centers. Private fiber networks are gaining in popularity because they often undercut the prices offered by regional phone companies and they provide large corporations with a fault-tolerant system of backups. Critics of the private lines say they are skimming the highest profit, easiest to serve segment of customers away from the regional telephone companies. They caution that the result may be increased prices for rural and residential users whose prices are traditionally subsidized by large corporate accounts.
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Article Abstract:
AT and T plans to employ foreign seamen on two new undersea cable-laying ships. The telephone company cites economics as the reason for its decision not to employ American workers; foreign seaman command one-tenth the salary their American counterparts do. Operating ships under an American flag is expensive because of laws that require stringent safety rules, higher wages for crew and the need for additional safety equipment. Many companies are registering their ships abroad to save on these costs and it has resulted in a fall in vessels flying under the American flag; 770 vessels were operating under the American flag in 1970 as compared with only 379 in 1990.
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Article Abstract:
International telephone traffic is doubling every four years, and so to keep up with demand, telephone companies must to lay new trans-Atlantic telephone cables. AT and T plans to lay 20,000 miles of fiber-optic cable during the next few years. Fiber-optic cables can carry from 40,000 to 80,000 calls at a time. Telephone company representatives say the increase in call traffic is due largely to increased facsimile communications and computer communications. The cables must be specially wrapped in steel tape in order to protect them from shark bites and from damage relating to fishing activities.
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