Tyco Telecommunications, a business unit of Tyco Electronics, is one of the world’s largest providers of advanced global broadband communication solutions. The company is the world’s only fully integrated supplier with the capabilities to design, develop, build, install and maintain undersea optical networks for telecommunications providers and commercial businesses.

Tyco Electronics Ltd. is a leading global provider of engineered electronic components, network solutions, undersea telecommunication systems and wireless systems, with 2008 sales of $14.8 billion to customers in more than 150 countries. Tyco Electronics designs, manufactures, and markets products for customers in industries from automotive, appliance and aerospace and defense to telecommunications, computers and consumer electronics. With nearly 8,000 engineers and worldwide manufacturing, sales, and customer service capabilities, Tyco Electronics’ commitment is our customers’ advantage. More information on Tyco Electronics can be found at http://www.tycoelectronics.com.

Tyco Telecommunications has its legacy in a number of companies that merged over the years, but traces its roots back to 1955, when it was Simplex Technologies, the company that built the American segment of the first transatlantic telephone cable. Tyco Telecommunications’ modern history begins with Tyco International’s acquisition of AT&T Submarine Systems to form Tyco Submarine Systems Ltd. (TSSL) in 1997. In 1999, TSSL bought Telecommunications Marinas, S.A. (Temasa), a wholly owned subsidiary of Telefonica S.A. (Spain’s national telephone service provider). All of these companies were combined into one vertically integrated supplier of undersea networks. Today, under the name Tyco Telecommunications, the company continues to design, install and maintain undersea systems.

Tyco Telecommunications takes pride in being the only U.S. based supplier of undersea systems. At Tyco Telecommunications, more than 75% of the staff and 100% of the wholly owned manufacturing capability resides in the U.S. The company’s executive headquarters is located in Morristown, NJ and the R&D Labs are based in Eatontown, NJ. While Tyco Telecommunications is primarily a U.S. based company, sales and operations staffs work in nearly every corner of the globe.

Tyco Telecommunications manufactures all of the key subsystems required for system construction. Cable, repeaters and branching units are manufactured at the Tyco Integrated Cable Systems facility in Newington, NH. The Tyco Telecommunications facility in Lowell, MA manufactures dry plant equipment. The company also has an agreement with Hitachi Cable, Ltd., which manufactures Tyco Telecommunicationsdesigned cable in Japan, providing a more cost efficient method for system construction located in Asia. Tyco Telecommunications is a vertically integrated system supplier with a full suite of manufacturing capabilities.

Although specifically designed and constructed for cable maintenance and construction, these ships are the most versatile and capable cable ships in the industry.

Our crews are comprised of highly trained and experienced merchant mariners, submersible engineers and cable operations staff. In addition to typical cable construction and maintenance activities, these ships provide excellent platforms for trenching, mattressing, and salvage operations.

Fiber-optic cable is made up of strands of glass, each thinner than a human hair, yet stronger, length for length, than steel. Each strand acts as a conduit for light waves that contain enormous amounts of data. The amount of information that can travel over optic fibers is over a hundred times greater than that of traditional copper wire.

The process begins with design and planning, including detailed charting of the cable route on the bottom of the ocean. Tyco Telecommunications manufactures all of the primary elements (sub-systems) of a cable network, including the land-based transmission equipment, the powering equipment, the undersea repeaters and the cable itself.

Once manufacturing is complete, one or more of Tyco Telecommunications’ vessels is loaded with the cable and repeaters and begins installing the cable. Using submersible tools including ROVs and sea plows, Tyco Telecommunications buries the cable in areas where fishing or shipping present a threat to the safety of the cable, with a minimal impact on the surrounding environment. Tyco Telecommunications’ expert installation team performs all of the installation work within the cable station and then tests the entire system before handing it over to the customer.

A cable station is a facility for telecommunications equipment that is a connecting point between undersea and land networks. It could be considered a “meeting place” for different telecom carriers and ISPs.

The most tangible impact fiber-optic networks will have on average consumers will be in their home. With new homes already being wired directly to optic fibers, the data transmission capabilities are enormous — hundreds of millions of bits per second. And with the increased transmission rates, the scope of fiber optics in the home becomes vast. Beyond ordering any movie on-demand, in the fiber-optic home of the future, consumers will be able to watch their favorite sports programs from any number of different views from cameras set up around the stadium; play a three-dimensional, holographic chess game with a friend on the other side of the world; take a cooking class in real-time from a teacher in Vienna from the comfort of your own kitchen in New York, and much more.

Only time will tell what the true impact fiber-optic networks’ ability to move huge amounts of information across the globe instantaneously will have on human lives. As more and more fiber-optic networks come online and the price for transmission goes down, the rate at which these benefits are realized will increase dramatically. Even as these predictions are made, fiber-optic networks are increasing their reach and capacity. There is even research underway to create a network with hollow optic fibers — allowing light to pass unimpeded through air instead of being refracted by glass. If this technology comes to fruition, the information-carrying capacity, which is astronomical today, will be increased 100 times. Once that happens, the idea of participating in a virtual expedition to the North Pole will seem no more implausible than calling a friend on your videophone.