the United States-and then ultimately told them all to share the $1 billion contract. 7 Phrases such as“quantum leap”and“orders of magnitude'”frequently come up in discussions about advances in undersea fiber optics.In 1998,when glass fibers began to replace copper in telecommunications,people stopped talking in terms of hundreds of simultaneous phone calls per cable and started talking about tens of thousands.Scientists at companies such as Ciena Corp.of Maryland have more than quadrupled fiber-cable capacity by using lasers to split light into colors,sending data through each path in a process called "wave division multiplexing.The newest trans-Atlantic cable can handle 2.4 million voice conversations at one time-or hundreds of thousands of compressed video images.The China-U.S.project will handle 4 million calls at once. 8 Lucent Technology Inc.,one of the leading fiber optic companies,unveiled the latest breakthrough.The ability to transmit as many as 10 million calls over a single fiber by dividing the strand into 80 separate wavelengths of light instead of 16.Lucent says the cable's 400-gigabit (billions of computer instructions per second)speed is enough to carry the world's Internet traffic at any given time on one fiber.One voice phone call requires 64,000 bits.Is there any limit to the capacity increase?"Absolutely not,"said Neil Tagare, Project Oxygen's founder and an undersea fiber veteran,"There is in sight. 9 And as the boom in fiber-optics continues,the cost of fiber decreases.Each voice circuit in a pre-fiber trans-Atlantic cable in 1987 cost about $40,00 annually to build and maintain,Mr.Kessler said.Today,the cost has dropped to roughly to $100 to 200 per circuit,he said.The plunging costs,combined with deregulation and competition in phone markets,have made distance meaningless in communications-and the price of calls. 10 Aboard the C.S.Global Link,Captain Jones remains very busy.The ship returned to Blatimore from the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean,after dropping 2,000 miles of cable from Bombay to Malaysia as part of another major project,called Fiber Link Around the Globe.Before Bombay,it helped to lay Atlantic Crossing,covering 3,557 miles of fiber-optic cables at an average speed of 6 knots over 21 days.It takes less than two months to install a trans-Atlantic cable.Ships use computers that are programmed to follow a specific route using global positioning satellite navigation systems.The routes are chosen after careful undersea topographical surveys that consider such factors as underwater earthquake faults,canyons and shipping and fishing routes."If global links continue to grow as they have in the last decade,it's going to get kind of crowded down there,says Jones. 547the United States- and then ultimately told them all to share the $ 1 billion contract. 7 Phrases such as "quantum leap" and "orders of magnitude" frequently come up in discussions about advances in undersea fiber optics. In 1998 , when glass fibers began to replace copper in telecommunications, people stopped talking in terms of hundreds of simultaneous phone calls per cable and started talking about tens of thousands. Scientists at companies such as Ciena Corp. of Maryland have more than quadrupled fiber-cable capacity by using lasers to split light into colors, sending data through each path in a process called "wave division multiplexing. " The newest trans-Atlantic cable can handle 2.4 million voice conversations at one time - or hundreds of thousands of compress video images. The China-U. S. project will handle 4 million calls at once. 8 Lucent Technology lnc. , one of the leading fiber optic companies, unveiled the latest breakthrough. The ability to transmit as many as 10 million calls over a single fiber by dividing the strand into 80 separate wavelengths of light instead of 16. Lucent says the cable' s 400-gigabit (billions of computer instructions per second) speed is enough to carry the world' s Internet traffic at any given time on one fiber. One voice phone cal1 requires 64 ,000 bits. Is there any limit to the capacity increase? "Absolutely not ," said Neil Tagare , Project Oxygen's founder and an undersea fiber veteran , "There is in sight." 9 And as the boom in fiber-optics continues, the cost of fiber decreases. Each voice circuit in a pre-fiber trans-At1antic cable in 1987 cost about $ 40 , 00 annually to build and maintain , Mr. Kessler said. Today , the cost has dropped to roughly to $ 100 to $ 200 per cìrcuit , he saìd. The plungìng costs, combìned wìth deregulation and competition in phone markets, have made distance meanìngless in communicatìons - and the price of calls. 10 Aboard the C. S. Global Link , Captaìn Jones remaìns very busy. The ship returned to Blatìmore from the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean , after dropping 2 , 000 miles of cable from Bombay to Malaysia as part of another major project , called Fìber Link Around the Globe. Before Bombay , it helped to lay Atlantic Crossing , covering 3 , 557 miles of fìber-optìc cables at an average speed of 6 knots over 21 days. It takes less than two months to ìnstall a trans-Atlantìc cable. Ships use computers that are programmed to follow a specific route using global posìtìonìng satellìte navìgation systems. The routes are chosen a