Except for the San Luis Obispo station in the US state of California and its surrounding areas, most sections of the China-US cable network have passed circuit tests and are now ready for service.

China Telecom, along with another 15 initial parties and 46 telecom carriers who have bought the cable service, will gradually open international telecom service in the Asian Pacific region, a company official said on January 11.

The 26,000-km-long fiber-optic cable network, beginning construction in December 1997, has two stations in the Chinese mainland and the US respectively. It also has branches which link China's Taiwan, Japan, and the Republic of Korea.

With designed capacity of 80 GB/s for its south and north routes respectively, the submarine cable will help ease the shortage of telecom routes from Asia to America, thus promoting the development of the international telecom service, especially that of Internet and multi-media services in the areas.

The remaining construction on the cable will be completed this October, the official said.