Submarine communications cable
A
submarine communications cable is a cable laid beneath the sea to carry
telecommunications between countries.
The first submarine communications cables carried
telegraphy traffic. Subsequent generations of cables carried first
telephony traffic, then data communications traffic. All modern cables use
fiber optic technology to carry digital payloads, which are then used to carry telephone traffic as well as
Internet and private data traffic.
As of 2002, submarine cables link all the world's continents except Antarctica.
It is designed to factor out general communications cable issues from transatlantic / telephone / telegraph special cases
History of submarine communications cables
The first submarine communications cable was a telegraph cable laid between England and France in August 1850 by the Anglo-French Telegraph Company. In 1852 a link laid by the Submarine Telegraph Company linked London to Paris for the first time.
The first transatlantic telegraph cable was laid in 1858 (Cyrus Field). It only operated for a month. Attempts in 1865 and 1866 were more successful but although a telephone cable was discussed from the 1920s it needed a number of technological advances that did not arrive until the 1940s to be practical.
- blowing up the first transatlantic cable
- Lord Kelvin and the mirror galvanometer
TAT-1 (Transatlantic No. 1) was the first
transatlantic telephone cable system. It was laid between Gallanach Bay, near Oban, Scotland and Clarenville, Newfoundland between
1955 and
1956. It was inaugurated on September 25 1956, initially carrying 36 telephone channels.
Technology of submarine communications cables
to be written
Economics of submarine communications cables
- national telco partnerships
- opening to third parties
- indefeasible rights of use (IRUs)
- venture capital
- boom and bust
- FLAG, Project Oxygen
- exponential rise in capacity over time makes value of IRUs implode
to be written
Owners and operators of submarine communications cables
to be written
Owners and operators of cable-laying ships
to be written
See also:
External links: