The 20,890 kilometer (12,980 miles) PC-1 fiber optic network is the highest capacity network that connects the United States with Asia. It launched with a bandwidth of 180 Gb/s and expanded to 640 Gb/s in 2006. With this latest upgrade, the bandwidth surpasses 1000 Gb/s mark and now stands at 1.01 Tb/s (126.26 GB/s). Given the fact that other cables don't offer nearly as much bandwidth as this one, the collaboration between Fujitsu and Pacific Crossing effectively doubled Internet bandwidth between USA and Japan.

The expansion project started back in September of 2007. After seven months of work, spanking new Flashwave S650 submarine wavelength multiplexers raise the overall capacity of the PC-1 network to 1.98 Tb/s (while only 1.01 Tb/s is available on the two Trans-Pacific segments), which is connecting four so-called "landing points": Shima and Ajigaura in Japan and Harbour Pointe (WA) and Grover Beach (CA) in the United States. Two sets of fiber optic cables cross the Pacific; an additional two sets connect the Japanese and US landing points.

It will be interesting to see how NEC and Tyco implement their technology for the Google-backed project Unity. Unity should yield a bandwidth of 7.68 Tb/s (983.04 GB/s), which should become available around 2010. Before that, PC-1 is your best chance to view those numerous anime and manga cartoons from the Land of The Rising Sun.

Source: tgdaily.com