Alcatel expands submarine cable systems activities

The submarine cable business of French company Alcatel SEL recently expanded with the purchase of STC Submarine Systems from the Canadian enterprise Northern Telecom for about $1 billion. The new company will be called Alcatel Submarine Systems and will be regrouped with Alcatel CIT and Alcatel Cable. Alcatel estimates that with a projected annual sales of $1 billion the company`s worldwide market share should reach about 40%. Two other major submarine cable suppliers, AT&T (USA) and KDD (Japan), will vie for shares of the growing submarine cable communications systems market.