The construction of the first Trans-Pacific Express between China and the United States has been formally started in Qingdao, Shandong Province.
With a designed bandwidth capacity of 5.12T, the whole project is expected to be completed before next year's Olympic Games.
TPE is a large capacity undersea cable connecting China and the U.S. that was initiated in December last year by six operators of China Telecom, China Netcom, China Unicom, Chunghwa Telecom, Korea Telecom and Verizon with a total investment of US$500 million. Totaling 18000 kilometers in length, it is the second undersea cable between the Chinese mainland and the U.S., connecting Oregon in the U.S. with Qingdao and Shanghai Chongming Island in China, with branch cables extending to South Korean and Taiwan.
The project is estimated to be completed and put into operation in July 2008 to meet the broadband needs of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.