U.S. Fights Soviet Fiber-Optic Deal
Despite America’s rapidly warming friendship with the Soviet Union, the Commerce Department said Wednesday that it will move to block the export of U.S. technology for the creation of a vast, $500-million fiber-optic network that would span the Soviet Union.
U.S. defense officials apparently fear that the fiber-optic network could be used for Soviet military communications, replacing the current microwave transmissions, which are relatively easy to intercept. Fiber-optic cables are buried underground or on the sea bottom and would provide a much more secure means of transmission for the Soviet Union.
“Telecommunications equipment is considered strategically sensitive . . . because of its usefulness to the military in coordinating troop movements and in the deployment and use of weapons,” the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Export Administration said Wednesday, announcing that it would reject an export license application by US West.
The department has proposed easing regulations on telecommunications exports, but officials believe that the technology in this project is too easily turned to military use.
However, promoters of the network see it as a profitable venture that will bring the Soviet Union into a modern communications system spanning the world. They hope the recent friendly summit meeting between President Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev will create a more receptive mood for the project.
The line is “an important telecommunications link” said Laird Walker, vice president of US West, the Denver-based telephone and communications company designing the network. “We hope that we can convince the U.S. government of that fact during the upcoming review process.” The Commerce Department issued a notice of intent to deny the export application, but the decision can be reversed during a lengthy review process that could ultimately go to the White House.
“We are pursuing this project as a major opportunity for American business, and we are hopeful that American business opportunities will not be lost,” Walker said.
The network can carry vast amounts of telephone calls, computer data and video information through fiber-optic cables made of glass. The transmission quality is better and the capacity much greater than the Soviet Union’s current system of copper cables and satellites. The proposed network would span the Soviet Union, connecting in the west with existing systems in central and southern Europe, and with a northern European network that crosses the North Sea into the United Kingdom. On Russia’s east coast, the network would cross the Sea of Japan, linking with systems that run from Japan into southeast Asia and Australia.
The network’s technology transmits 565 million bits of information a second, a system that is five to seven years “behind the state of the art,” according to US West spokesman Ed Mattix. Current systems transfer 1.2 billion to 1.7 billion bits of information a second.
However, rules on export technology forbid shipment to the Soviet Union of any fiber optic systems with data transmission speed exceeding 140 million bits a second. The regulations were established by a multinational committee on exports representing the United States and other members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and Japan and Australia.
After consulting with the Pentagon and other agencies, the Commerce Department decided to oppose the project. “It has been determined that such a transfer of sophisticated technology would be contrary to U.S. national security interests,” the Bureau of Export Administration said.
US West is the leader of a consortium to develop the network, which includes the Soviet Union’s ministry of Post and Telecommunications, and companies from Japan, Italy, Britain, Australia, Denmark and West Germany.
Although this particular deal may be killed by Commerce Department opposition, the long-range outlook for telecommunications exports is very good, according to industry executives.
“When the government says national security, you can’t argue with that,” said Paul Rogoski, spokesman for the United States Telephone Assn., which represents local phone companies, the “Baby Bells” created when American Telephone & Telegraph was dismantled, as well as independent firms. “Once you get past the national security issue, these transactions will become more common,” Rogoski said. There is big market potential in the Communist Bloc, he noted.
SALES BARRED
The U.S. will block high-tech exports to the Soviet Union until blockades of Lithuania stop. A1
