News: AT&T says to upgrade Asia-Pac undersea cable

AMERICAN communications holding company AT&T Inc. announced July 27 "the planned expansion of its network capacity for the Asia Pacific region through the upgrade of the APCN2, of which AT&T is part of the ownership group."

In a statement issued from Hong Kong, the company said "the fourfold rise in capacity in the dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) cable will increase the original design capacity from the existing 10Gb/s [gigabyte per second] DWDM to 40Gb/s expansion."

"This represents one of the world's large-scale upgrade of a major undersea cable network."

The statement explained that the existing APCN2 "is an undersea telecommunications network of cables that spans 19,000 kilometers and connects ten landing points across Asia Pacific, including in China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan."

"APCN2 is a key component of AT&T's global backbone and along with several other subsea cables in the Asia Pacific region. It provides high-speed bandwidth and helps enable the diversity needed to support meshing capabilities provided by the AT&T global network. The APCN2 is designed to provide connectivity with other major trans-oceanic cable networks linking the USA, Europe, Australia and other parts of Asia."

AT&T claims it "owns or leases capacity on more than 85 submarine cable systems, spanning more than 433,904 fiber-route miles around the globe, including several submarine cable routes that it uses to carry traffic between the Asia Pacific region and North America."

The company added that it plans to spend US$1 billion this year "as part of its overall 2010 global network investment to scale its delivery of applications, mobility and cloud services for global companies, to expand small business services within the United States and to continue extending its network globally."

The company said it expects the upgrade "to be completed by the second quarter of 2011."

[The blogger hasn"t receive any form of compensation from the company cited herein in exchange for the re-write of its press release.]

Ponderisms

(Got this from my wife Patricia who, I guess, also received it in her email inbox. Witty.)



I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes.

There are two kinds of pedestrians: the quick and the dead.

Life is sexually transmitted.

Healthy is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.

The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.

Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.

Have you noticed since everyone has a camcorder these days no one talks about seeing UFOs like they used to?

Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.

All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.

In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.

How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?

Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, 'I think I'll squeeze these dangly things and drink whatever comes out?'

If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a song about him?

Why does your OB-GYN leave the room when you get undressed if they are going to look up there anyway?

If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests?

If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, then what is baby oil made from?

Do illiterate people get the full effect of Alphabet Soup?

Does pushing the elevator button more than once make it arrive faster?

Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?

Do you ever wonder why you gave me your email address?

Abs-Cbn

Lensmen asks court to stop Abs-Cbn harassment


CAMERAMEN of Abs-Cbn Broadcasting Corp. sought the court's help to stop the publicly-listed media firm from coercing them to sign contracts invalidating years of service.

In documents filed June 29, the 17 workers asked National Labor Relations commissioner Romeo L. Go to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) on Abs-Cbn management's threat of dismissal if they fail to sign a new contract.

A letter signed by the company’s human resource account management head Jovelyn Sy warned one of the workers "the company will consider your silence as confirmation of your assent to the Petition [for Injunction] and the withdrawal of your conformity to your employment contract dated 16 June 2010.”

The TRO, which the workers paid P10,000 for from pooled money, was supposed to be heard June 29. Courts normally hear TRO applications as urgent and usually enforced immediately.

Go was absent during the hearings Tuesday and Thursday.

Based on Sy's letter, the workers sought Abs-Cbn “from compelling complainants to sign a) employment contract whose terms are prejudicial to the workers, [and] b) quitclaims/waiver and release herein complainants shall waive their right over the decision of the Commission recognizing complainants as regular employees and carrying with (sic) it the benefits of the regular employees under the Labor Code and also the benefits of the regular employees under the respondents CBA [collective bargaining agreement].”

The workers also asked the court to annul and not to implement the contract, waiver, quitclaims and release that they said they signed “out of fear.”

According to the petition, the workers said that Abs-Cbn’s management led by chair Eugenio Lopez III have been coercing complainants as early as February 2010 “to sign a new contract together with the quitclaims and waiver.”

“Should they fail to sign or accept the offer complainants shall [lose] their employment.”

The workers allege that Lopez issued the threat on June 15 at the company’s “Umagang Kay Ganda” studio “should they refuse to sign the new contract, quitclaims and waiver until midnight of June 16.”

A video of Lopez issuing such threat and which is available in online social network site YouTube quoted him as saying “From now on, yung mga hindi magpipirma ng kontrata, wala ng trabaho. In the past we have allowed it to go on. As of tomorrow, hindi na pwede po. So you either sign or find another job.”

According to the NLRC, the petition for injunction for a TRO will be recommended to Go late Friday or early Monday.