For a detailed description of the Virtual Consortium™ Model, please click and download the paper entitled, "CREATING THE OPTIMUM UNDERSEA PROJECT DEVELOPMENT MODEL". Only a high-level summary of the model is presented here.

In the Virtual Consortium™ Model, the potential capacity purchasers join an 'open consortium' in order to evaluate opportunities to invest and become equity owners in mutually-agreed fiber optic network assets. As an equity owner, the subscriber is entitled to various ownership benefits in accordance with its investment level, including:

• Owner Participation Guarantee: Each owner is legally guaranteed the right to participate in all decisions taken by the owner's committee for the management and/or operations of the jointly-owned network assets. Basically, every owner is provided a seat on the "virtual" board of directors of the "virtual" project company with a voting interest pro-rated to the capital investment made. TCCC is a non-voting entity that carries out the decisions similar to the executive management team of a company responding to its board of directors or shareholders.
  
  
• Network Capacity Rights: In return for the capital investment and continued payment of pro-rated O&M expenses, each owner is legally guaranteed the right to any capacity purchased for the life of the project (most projects have a 25-year design life). This includes the owner's initially allocated capacity, a pro-rated share of the common reserve capacity, and the right to participate in future upgrades of the network based upon the owner's mutually agreed upgrade cost sharing plan.

• Universal Subscription Guarantee: Each owner is guaranteed to have the same unit cost of capacity as every other capacity owner that invests at the same time with the same subscription level (or volume purchase level).

• Guaranteed Non-Compete: TCCC will not have any of the TCCN capacity allocated to it, therefore, TCCC will be incapable of competion with any of the capacity subscribers that use their capacity in the creation and sales of telecommunications services carried within the TCCN.  Our primary mission will always be to provide for the un-biased management of the network in the service of our capacity subscribers.

• Guaranteed Network Access: Where TCCC is designated to own and/or control the cable landing facilities, TCCC will guarantee each capacity owner the ability to obtain access, collocation, multiplexing services, and interconnection services without any bias or inherent conflict of interest (subject to local regulations).

• Guaranteed Flexibility: TCCC guarantees to provide as much flexibility as possible to the capacity subscribers subject to the inherent financial or technical limitations of TCCN.  (i.e. full portability within or across the network from any point to any other point will be provided subject only to potential financial or technical limitations within the network.)

• Centralized Management:  TCCC will arrange for centralized management, operations, and maintenance of the network at the most competitive costs without sacrificing network availability, rapid provisioning intervals, or customer service.