Abstract

By the end of 1982, Western Electric shipped to Bell Operating Cos. nearly 200,000 km of fiber and 10,000 regenerators. Highlights in 1982 include the completion and readying for service of the New York to Washington and Oakland to Sacramento portions of the Northeast and Pacific corridors. These two routes contain 70,000 km of fiber. Average installed fiber loss is 3.7 dB/km at 0.82μm and 1.7 dB/km at 1.3 μm. This includes an average of 2 splices/km and an average splice loss of 0.15 dB. Results of an extensive Bell Laboratories field evaluation of the 90-Mbit/sec FT3C system in the New York to Philadelphia portion of the Northeast corridor will be reported. Operational experience on FT3 systems that have been in service for as long as three years will also be summarized.

© 1983 Optical Society of America