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- The Business
FLAG began in 1990 when a group of investors -- including a Saudi bank and a Japanese trading company, as well as the American telephone carrier NYNEX -- recognized a lack of phone capacity between Great Britain and Asia. Within 10 years, amid exuberant projections of broadband Internet demand, FLAG Telecom Ltd. built a worldwide fiber-optic network, a market value of more than $4 billion and a share price of up to $40. FLAG is registered in Bermuda, whose tax laws (it levees no taxes on income, sales or profits, and also exempts foreign-owned companies from the island's employment laws) have encouraged the re-location of many U.S. and European companies. In this photo, executives of an unidentified corporation enjoy the island's festive culture and seasonable climate.
Photo: AP
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- The Cable, United Kingdom
Although NYNEX led the FLAG effort, the company did not manufacture the necessary cable. Shown here, the delicate fiber-optic strands that carry phone traffic must be both precisely engineered and heavily armored in jute, tar, plastic and -- in some cases -- steel, for protection against backhoes, ships' anchors and the raw elements. For this specialized product, FLAG went to its main competitor AT&T.
Photo: Alex Tehrani
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- The Berges, open ocean
In June 1994, FLAG signed a $1.2 billion contract with AT&T to lay its Europe-Asia cable. With the help of divers and remote-control tractors, barges such as this one spooled cable into shallow trenches on the seafloor. Laying FLAG's main strand from Britain to Japan required five cable barges.
Photo: Alex Tehrani
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- The Divers, open ocean
Cable barge crews are typically highly skilled and well-paid. Barge captains combine sea-going skills with dive expertise. Most crew members are adept with computers and satellite equipment, as well as with welding torches. Cable divers often have military, or underwater salvage training. According to WIRED magazine, pay for a cable-layer was generally between $200 and $400 a day, plus benefits and a per diem in 1996.
Photo: Alex Tehrani
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- Crossing Thailand
In Thailand, FLAG would again come ashore. With area shipping traffic presenting a high snag risk, FLAG opted for a land crossing of the Malay Peninsula. Economics favored a passage through Thailand. While America was experiencing a boom in 1997, Asia had gone from miracle to crisis, beginning with the devaluation of the Thai baht. As in Egypt, FLAG Telecom took on a native partner for the terrestrial work: Communication Authority Thailand (CAT).
Photo: Alex Tehrani
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- Terrestrial Cable, Egypt
On its way from Britain to Asia, FLAG landed on Egypt's Mediterranean coast and proceeded in two separate strands to the Suez Canal and out to the Red Sea. For this terrestrial portion of the dig, FLAG partnered with a local firm, ARENTO (Arab Republic of Egypt National Telecommunications Organization). ARENTO in turn hired a Middle Eastern firm, Consolidated Contractors, which hired locals to complete the actual dig. The legal minimum wage in Egypt was $28 per month in 1999.
Photo: Alex Tehrani
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- Picks and Shovels, Thailand
Compared to laying cable at sea, burying it on land is simple: dig a ditch, lay in plastic or steel tubes, and thread the cable. It is on land that high-tech meets low-income, trading dive rigs and robots for picks and shovels wielded under widely varying conditions. While agreements between large companies like FLAG and CAT are typically formal and transparent, those between successive layers of subcontractors may become much less so. The average wage in Thailand at the time of the FLAG dig was approximately $1.10 per hour (compared to $7 per hour in nearby Singapore).
Photo: Alex Tehrani
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- Manholes Village, Thailand
Possibly the most laborious step in the land-based dig is fabrication and burial of "manholes," concrete bunkers that allow quick location and repair of breaches. FLAG's Thailand dig required 931 manholes, laid out at 100- to 300-foot intervals on each route. For this job, FLAG's Thai partners employed up to seven "manhole making villages," which each employed between several dozen and a hundred men and women.
Photo: Alex Tehrani
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- Back to the Sea, Thailand
From Songkhla, Thailand FLAG proceeded through the South China Sea to Hong Kong before branching out to Shanghai, China, Koje-do Island in Korea, and two separate landings in Japan. Connecting 13 countries, and carrying up 320,000 messages, the cable passing through this Thai manhole is yet another thread in the economic fabric of globalization. According to the FLAG Telecom Web site, the company's Europe-Asia cable today carries traffic from 60 major international carriers, including AT&T, Cable & Wireless Communications, China Telecom, ETISALAT and Hong Kong Telecom International.
Photo: Alex Tehrani
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- End Station, Japan
In this picture, FLAG joins other cables at a landing station in Ninimiya, Japan. With its Britain-Japan cable complete, FLAG Europe-Asia went live in 1997. But by 2001, the Internet bubble had burst. Companies like FLAG and Alcatel had over-built for a broadband demand that never materialized. Struggling under more than $1 billion in debt, FLAG Telecom in April 2002 joined a list of bankrupt telecom companies that continues to grow -- and which so far includes such headline-grabbers as WorldCom, Global Crossing, Metromedia Fiber Network, Williams Communications, Viatel, Winstar Communications and PSInet. In June 2002, the company's once high-flying stock was selling for pennies a share.
Photo: Alex Tehrani
