AT&T Corp, Bell Communications Research Inc, Bell Atlantic Corp, BellSouth Corp and Pacific Telesis Group Inc have formed the Multiwavelength Optical Networking consortium to investigage the technical and economic viability of wavelength division multiplexing, where a very high-speed broadband optical network is created by using multiple wavelengths – colours – of light. The aim is to improve the capacity and performance of the military, US national and global information infrastructure, and the team suggests that the technology would enable the US military to maintain near-perfect real-time knowledge of the enemy and communicate that to all forces in near-real time. The $100m five-year project will include laying a high-speed optical communications network in the New Jersey-Washington DC corridor to test the technology, AT&T, Bellcore and Bell Atlantic handling the trial with the participation of the US National Security Agency.
