The largest phone company in the U.S. AT&T and Japan's NTT said Tuesday that they joined an international consortium to build a new undersea network underneath the Pacific Ocean.
As more businesses expand internationally, phone companies such as AT&T are trying to diversify their networks to keep up with growing demand. AT&T said it was joining the effort to build the new Trans-Pacific Express network to help stabilize the Internet and its voice services.
AT&T and NTT are the latest members of a consortium formed 15 months ago by Verizon and a handful of Asian carriers including, China Telecom, China Netcom, China Unicom, Korea Telecom and Chungwa Telecom in Taiwan.
The groups is well on its way to getting the network up and running. A China-U.S. route is scheduled to be completed by August 2008 before the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China begin, according to Verizon. And the Japan-China route will be completed in March 2009.
As traffic on the Internet grows and becomes more global, more capacity and redundant routes are needed throughout the world. Just recently, Internet service was disrupted throughout parts of the Middle East and South Asia after three undersea cables were cut. The Trans-Pacific Express was started in late 2006, after an earthquake in Asia disrupted Internet service around the region and highlighted the need for a more stable network.
Telecommunications providers and other big technology companies, such as Google, have been stepping up to the plate to build more international capacity. For example, AT&T is also committed to helping build a separate undersea cable system called the Asia-America Gateway that connects Southeast Asia with North America in addition to joining the Tran-Pacific Express. And in February, Google announced that it would help build an undersea cable to link North America with Asia. The consortium dubbed "Unity," is comprised of Bharti Airtel, Global Transit, KDDI, Pacnet, and Singapore Telecommunications.
TOKYO--Here's something for those of you who get all bent out of shape about Net neutrality.
Japanese telecommunications giant NTT Group is in the midst of preparing its Next Generation Network, or NGN. NGN promises to marry the versatility of the Internet with the reliability of the wired phone network. The company hopes to achieve nationwide coverage by 2010. Speeds will range from 30 megabits per second to 1 gigabit per second. The company didn't narrow it down further, but in any event the service will be faster than current DSL.
NGN will be used for a lot of stuff: to deliver images from security cameras to your home or office, carry high-quality VoiP calls, deliver on-demand movies, etc.
The company, however, will also have priority pricing. If you pay for the highest quality of service, you will get unimpeded service for digital TV delivery. If you are cheaper, and you don't pay for premium service, you might experience a few blips on the screen if a lot of your neighbors are tuning in.
NTT showed off how this might work to a group of reporters visiting its technology showcase center in the Otemachi section of Tokyo. When a third TV came on line, two screens with priority service continued to have great connections. A third began to crackle occasionally.
Priority service drives Net neutrality fans nuts because companies get to offer better service to those who pay for it. Since the service isn't rolled out in Japan yet, it's hard to say what the consumer reaction will be or how NTT will ultimately offer its services. But you could see some people getting upset if they sense unfairness or overreaching.
Speaking of demos, NTT also showed off a video-conferencing application but the voice-to-image synchronization was a bit off. Well, it's not 2010 yet.
CHIBA, Japan--NTT, Japan's telecommunications giant, with help from Hitachi Displays has come out with a 3D LCD screen that doesn't require eyeglasses and doesn't cause eye strain.
3D for thee
(Credit: Michael Kanellos/CNET Networks)Called SpaceIllusion, the LCD screen basically consists of two LCDs sandwiched 10 millimeters apart. The two screens carry slightly different images but the overall effect to the viewer is that 2D images go 3D. Study the accompanying picture and you can see how the two images differ.
"This 3D TFT LCD displays images without physiological unnaturalness in comparison with conventional 3D glasses type of screens," the company said in its accompanying literature.
The 3D effect is optimized when you sit about a meter away. You can also flip off the 3D effect to make the screen show 2D images. The company showed it off at Ceatec, the large Japanese trade show here.
I watched it for a while and the effect was somewhat convincing. And it did feel more natural than in some other no-glasses 3D systems. In those--from Philips, Sanyo and Sharp--the pixels in a single screen are divided up. Some send images to one eye and the rest send images to the second eye. The images are slightly different and create a 3D image. You sometimes get jagged contours with those screens.
Those one-screen systems, however, are far more advanced in development. Philips has 42-inch screens and is talking to hotels and casinos about installing the screens. NTT's is a prototype and smaller.
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