Together, the submerged fiber-optic cables will position Lynn as a hub for information technology companies, city officials say.

Connecticut-based Asset Channels Inc. chose Lynn as the starting point for its eastern seaboard cable. The announcement came in the wake of the last September's decision by 360 Networks (formerly Worldwide Fiber) to locate the switching station for its high-speed Hibernia Cable on the outskirts of Lynn's Cyber District.

Construction of 360 Networks' switching station and a series of underground conduits that wind through downtown Lynn has been under way for weeks. The work was planned to dovetail with the company's laying of its transatlantic cable, which will transmit massive and at high-speed from Lynn to Liverpool, England, by way of Nova Scotia and Ireland.

According to city Development Director Stephen Harausz, the fiber-optic "dark cable" planned by Asset Channels will ultimately link to 360 Networks' transatlantic cable.

"That's the plan. They've already signed an agreement with (360 Networks) to do the construction of a link from downtown Lynn to Cambridge," he said, noting the route will follow an existing railroad right-of-way. "Asset Channels is laying cable under the sea along the coast, but it's also laying terrestrial cable from north to south."

The Lynn-to-Miami submarine cable route covers 2,450 miles and links cities including Ocean City, Md.; Virginia Beach, Va.; Cape Hatteras, N.C.; Myrtle Beach and Charleston, S.C.; Savannah, Ga.; and the Florida communities of Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Cocoa Beach, Vero Beach, West Palm Beach, Sunny Isles and Miami Beach.

The land-based cable will link Lynn with major cities such as Providence, R.I.; New York, Philadelphia; Wilmington, Del.; Baltimore, Richmond, Va.; Raleigh and Charlotte, N.C.; Atlanta and Macon, Ga.; and Orlando and Tampa, Fla.

Once operational, Assets Channel's GlobaLink system purportedly will offer high-speed, secure and reliable telecommunications loop in the eastern Untied Sates, connected to Canada-based Network 360's fiber-optic line that extends to Europe.

Asset Channels headquarters in New Canaan, Conn. plans to invest an estimated $360 million in the Lynn-Miami cable system. About $70 million would be spent in Lynn on underground cables, hardware, and construction of a switching station. The company is negotiating the purchase of a vacant city-owned lot on Commercial Street, about a block from 360 Networks' new Commercial Street building.

"This helps solidify Lynn's place on the map as a city with telecommunications infrastructure," Harausz said.Construction of the $1.5 million, 10,000 square-foot building is expected to begin in November, according to Harausz.

"Lynn benefits from these projects in a number of ways," he said. "The most obvious is the property tax revenue we will receive from investments in the city, which is significant."

Harausz likened the benefits of the telecom infrastructure to the construction of the Erie Canal in the early 1800s.

"The Erie Canal in New York State was instrumental in shaping the shipping industry in the 1850s," he said. "The cities along the canal benefited immensely, places like Buffalo, Syracuse, Utica and Albany. They had the strategic advantage of being along the route in the movement of goods up the Hudson River and over the canal to points west."

"In the same way, this new form of telecommunication is like the Erie Canal, and Lynn is right on the route at the start of the millennium. The investors chose Lynn for strategic reasons as the place to open these communication lines."

Asset Channel's Chief Financial Officer Christopher C. Ashby described the fledging cable company as a carrier's carrier. "Ours is not a long-haul system. We provide unlit line. An ISP, (Internet service provider) or a company, that's looking for a center for its credit card billing might find us attractive," he said. "They might buy a circuit on our system. We have the ability to bring fiber-optic cable to lots of locations along the eastern seaboard."

Ashby said Asset Channels purchased existing fiber-optic terrestrial lines from AT&T and other companies to create its 4,6000-mile 45 cities on the eastern seaboard, which is the largest traffic corridor in the world for telecommunications. "When fully lit, we could handle 40 terabits."

"You can make a lot of cheap phone calls is what I'm saying here," Ashby told Lynn officials. "Our system can link to the Hibernia Cable, which makes Lynn the kind of place that real estate companies value. Real estate likes to sit near large fiber-optic trunks because it's perfect to services ISPs and other data-intensive businesses."

Besides, he said, the Miami end of the coastal cable can link to other telecommunications systems rapidly growing in South America, and cities on the cable routes stand a better chance of reaping the benefits. "That's the new paradigm in telecommunications. It's like when the railroads were built."