Unit 2

    An undersea fibre optic cable stretching from China to the United States in a loop system more then 25,000 kilometres underwater will soon expand China's links with the world.

    This new fibre optic technology system will transmit voice, data and images at up to a total of 80 gigabits per second. The capacity of 80 gigabits per second is a massive speed advance on previous technology, and allows the transmission of more than one million calls simultaneously.

    The $1.5 billion China-US Cable Network, as it is called, provides a digital connection between China and the US, and overcomes the small fibre optic capacity which has been available, and which, among other things, affects the ability to expand Internet capacity(currently all links are via satellite). China Telecom has been trying for some time to set up a direct link with the US. The cable will be used for all communications such as telephone line services including Internet connections and e-mail links.

    超过2万5千公里在水面下的中美海底光纤循环系统将把中国和世界连接起来。

    这条新的光缆系统将以每秒8万兆比特的总速度来传输声音，数据和图像，每秒8万兆比特的容量是对现有技术的重大改进，它允许同时传输超过一百万个电话的信号。

    价值15亿美元的中美光缆系统，就像它被称呼的，提供中国和美国之间的数字连接，并且克服了现有光纤容量较小的问题。另外，也提高了互联网扩展的能力（目前都是通过卫星来连接的）。中国电信一直致力于建立一条同美国的直接连接。这条光纤将被用于所有的通讯服务，例如电话服务，以及互联网连接和e-mail连接服务。