A transatlantic telecommunications cable is a submarine communications cable connecting one side of the Atlantic Ocean to the other. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, each cable was a single wire. After mid-century, coaxial cable came into use, with amplifiers. Late in the 20th century, all cables installed use optical fiber as well as optical amplifiers, because distances range thousands of kilometers.
When the first transatlantic telegraph cable was laid in 1858 by Cyrus West Field, it operated for only three weeks; a subsequent attempt in 1866 was more successful.[ citation needed ] On July 13, 1866 the cable laying ship Great Eastern sailed out of Valentia Island, Ireland and on July 27 landed at Heart's Content in Newfoundland, completing the first lasting connection across the Atlantic. It was active until 1965. [1]
Although a telephone cable was discussed starting in the 1920s, [2] to be practical it needed a number of technological advances which did not arrive until the 1940s.[ citation needed ] Starting in 1927, transatlantic telephone service was radio-based. [3]
TAT-1 (Transatlantic No. 1) was the first transatlantic telephone cable system. It was laid between Gallanach Bay, near Oban, and Clarenville, Newfoundland between 1955 and 1956 by the cable ship Monarch . [4] It was inaugurated on September 25, 1956, initially carrying 36 telephone channels. In the first 24 hours of public service, there were 588 London–U.S. calls and 119 from London to Canada. The capacity of the cable was soon increased to 48 channels. Later, an additional three channels were added by use of C Carrier equipment. Time-assignment speech interpolation (TASI) was implemented on the TAT-1 cable in June 1960 and effectively increased the cable's capacity from 37 (out of 51 available channels) to 72 speech circuits. TAT-1 was finally retired in 1978. Later coaxial cables, installed through the 1970s, used transistors and had higher bandwidth. The Moscow–Washington hotline was initially connected through this system.
All cables presently in service use fiber optic technology. Many cables terminate in Newfoundland and Ireland, which lie on the great circle route from London, UK to New York City, US.
There has been a succession of newer transatlantic cable systems. All recent systems have used fiber optic transmission, and a self-healing ring topology. Late in the 20th century, communications satellites lost most of their North Atlantic telephone traffic to these low-cost, high-capacity, low-latency cables. This advantage only increases over time, as tighter cables provide higher bandwidth – the 2012 generation of cables drop the transatlantic latency to under 60 milliseconds, according to Hibernia Atlantic, deploying such a cable that year. [5] [6]
Some new cables are being announced on the South Atlantic: SACS (South Atlantic Cable System) [7] and SAex (South Atlantic Express). [8]
The TAT series of cables constitute a large percentage of all North Atlantic cables. All TAT cables are joint ventures between a number of telecommunications companies, e.g. British Telecom. CANTAT cables terminate in Canada rather than in the US.
| Name | In service | Type | Initial channels | Final channels | Western end | Eastern end |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TAT-1 | 1956–1978 | Galvanic | 36 | 51 | Newfoundland | Scotland |
| TAT-2 | 1959–1982 | Galvanic | 48 | 72 | Newfoundland | France |
| TAT-3 | 1963–1986 | Galvanic | 138 | 276 | New Jersey | England |
| TAT-4 | 1965–1987 | Galvanic | 138 | 345 | New Jersey | France |
| TAT-5 | 1970–1993 | Galvanic | 845 | 2,112 | Rhode Island | Spain |
| TAT-6 | 1976–1994 | Galvanic | 4,000 | 10,000 | Rhode Island | France |
| TAT-7 | 1978–1994 | Galvanic | 4,000 | 10,500 | New Jersey | England |
| TAT-8 | 1988–2002 | Fiber-optic | 40,000 | – | New Jersey | England, France |
| TAT-9 | 1992–2004 | Fiber-optic | 80,000 | – | New Jersey, Nova Scotia | Spain, France, England |
| TAT-10 | 1992–2003 | Fiber-optic | 2 × 565 Mbit/s | – | US | Germany, Netherlands |
| TAT-11 | 1993–2003 | Fiber-optic | 2 × 565 Mbit/s | – | New Jersey | France |
| TAT-12/13 | 1996–2008 | Fiber-optic | 12 × 2.5 Gbit/s | – | US × 2 | England, France |
| TAT-14 | 2001–2020 | Fiber-optic | 3.2 Tbit/s | – | New Jersey × 2 | England, France, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark |
| CANTAT-1 | 1961–1986 | Galvanic | 80 | – | Newfoundland | Scotland |
| CANTAT-2 | 1974–1992 | Galvanic | 1,840 | – | Nova Scotia | England |
| CANTAT-3 | 1994–2010 | Fiber-optic | 2 × 2.5 Gbit/s | Nova Scotia | Iceland, Faroe Islands, England, Denmark, Germany | |
| PTAT-1 | 1989–2004 | Fiber-optic | 3 × 140 Mbit/s? | New Jersey & Bermuda | Ireland & England |
There are a number of private non-TAT cables.
| Cable name | Ready for service | Cable length (km) | Nominal capacity | Latency (ms) | Landing points | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini (decommissioned) | May 1998 | under 100 ms | north: Charlestown, US-RI; Oxwich Bay, GB-WLS; south: Manasquan, US-NJ; Porthcurno, GB-ENG | Vodafone (originally Cable & Wireless) | ||
| AC-1 | May 1998 | 14,301 km | 120 Gbit/s | 65 ms [6] | Brookhaven, US-NY; Whitesands Bay, GB-ENG; Beverwijk, NL-NH; Sylt, DE-SH | Lumen Technologies (originally Global Crossing) |
| Columbus III | December 1999 | 9,833 km | Hollywood, US-FL; Ponta Delgada (Azores), PT; Carcavelos, PT; Conil de la Frontera, ES-AN; Mazara del Vallo (Sicily), IT | various telecom operators | ||
| Yellow/AC-2 | September 2000 | 7,001 km | 640 Gbit/s | under 100 ms | Bellport, US-NY; Bude, GB-ENG | Lumen Technologies |
| Hibernia Atlantic | April 2001 | 12,200 km | 320 Gbit/s, upgraded to 10.16 Tbit/s [9] | 59 ms [6] | Lynn, US-MA; Herring Cove, CA-NS; Dublin, IE-L; Southport, GB-ENG; Coleraine, GB-NIR | GTT Communications, Inc. (originally Hibernia Networks) |
| FLAG Atlantic | June 2001 | 14,500 km | under 100 ms | Island Park, US-NY; Plerin, FR-BRE; Skewjack, GB-ENG; Northport, US-NY | Global Cloud Xchange (Reliance Communications) | |
| Tata TGN-Atlantic | June 2001 | 13,000 km | 5.1 Tbit/s | under 100 ms | Wall Township, US-NJ; Highbridge, GB-ENG | Sold by Tyco to Tata Communications in 2005 |
| Apollo | February 2003 | 13,000 km | 3.2 Tbit/s | under 100 ms | Manasquan, New Jersey, US-NJ; Lannion, FR-BRE; Bude, GB-ENG; Shirley, US-NY | Vodafone (originally Cable & Wireless) [10] |
| Greenland Connect | March 2009 | 4,780 km | Milton, CA-NL; Aasiaat, GL-QA; Sisimiut, GL-QE; Maniitsoq, GL-QE; Nuuk, GL-SM; Qaqortoq, GL-KU; Landeyjar, IS | TELE Greenland | ||
| Hibernia Express | September 2015 | 4,600 km | Halifax, CA-NS; Cork, IE-M; Brean, GB-ENG | GTT Communications, Inc. (originally Hibernia Networks) | ||
| AEConnect (AEC-1) | January 2016 | 5,522 km | 4 × 10 Tbit/s (four strand 100 × 100 Gbit/s) | 54 ms | Shirley, US-NY; Killala, IE-C | Aqua Comms |
| MAREA | February 2018 | 6,600 km | 160 Tbit/s | Virginia Beach, US-VA; Bilbao, ES-PV | Facebook (25 %), Microsoft (25 %), Telefónica (50 %) | |
| Midgardsormen | Q2 2019 (planned) | 7,848 km | Virginia Beach, US-VA; Blaabjerg, DK; Mo i Rana, NO | Midgardsormen | ||
| Dunant | September 2020 (live) | 6,400km | 250 Tbit/s | Virginia Beach, US-VA; Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez, FR | Google [11] [12] | |
| Havfrue, including America Europe Connect-2 (AEC-2) branch | December 2020 | 7,851km | 108 Tbit/s | New Jersey, US; Dublin, RoI; London, UK; Amsterdam, NL; Blaabjerg, DK; Kristiansand, NO | AquaCommms, Bulk Infrastructure, Facebook and Google [13] | |
| Grace Hopper | September 2022 | 6,000km | 352 Tbit/s | New York, US; Bude, UK; Bilbao, Spain | Google [14] [15] | |
| Amitié | July 2023 | 6,600km | 320 Tbit/s | Lynn, Massachusetts, US; Bude, UK; Le Porge, France | A consortium comprising Facebook, Microsoft, Aqua Comms, Vodafone (through Cable & Wireless Americas Systems), Orange [16] |
| Cable name | Ready for service | Length | Landing points | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atlantis-2 | February 2000 | 8,500 km | Carcavelos, PT; El Médano, ES-CN; Praia, CV; Dakar, SN; Fortaleza, BR-CE; Las Toninas, AR-B | various telecom operators |
| EllaLink | Q2 2021 | 5,900 km | Sines, PT; Fortaleza, BR-CE; Santos, BR-SP | Telebras, IslaLink |
| SACS | Q3 2018 | 6,165 km | Fortaleza, BR-CE; Luanda, AO | Angola Cables |
| SAIL | Q4 2018 | 5,900 km | Fortaleza, BR-CE; Kribi, CM | Camtel, China Unicom |
Telecommunications in Kuwait provides information about the telephone, Internet, radio, and television infrastructure in Kuwait.
TAT-1 was the first submarine transatlantic telephone cable system. It was laid between Kerrera, Oban, Scotland and Clarenville, Newfoundland. Two cables were laid between 1955 and 1956 with one cable for each direction. It was inaugurated on September 25, 1956. The cable was able to carry 35 simultaneous telephone calls. A 36th channel was used to carry up to 22 telegraph lines.
TAT-6 was the sixth transatlantic telephone cable. It was in operation from 1976 to 1994, with a bandwidth of 12MHz between Green Hill and Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez, Vendée, (France).
TAT-8 was the 8th transatlantic communications cable and first transatlantic fiber-optic cable, carrying 280 Mbit/s between the United States, United Kingdom and France. It was constructed in 1988 by a consortium of companies led by AT&T Corporation, France Télécom, and British Telecom. AT&T Bell Laboratories developed the technologies used in the cable. The system was made possible by opto-electric-opto regenerators acting as repeaters with advantages over the electrical repeaters of former cables. They were less costly and could be at greater spacing with less need for associated hardware and software. It was able to serve the three countries with a single transatlantic crossing with the use of an innovative branching unit located underwater on the continental shelf off the coast of Great Britain. The cable lands in Tuckerton, New Jersey, USA, Widemouth Bay, England, UK, and Penmarch, France.
TAT-9 was the 9th transatlantic telephone cable system, in operation from 1992 to 2004, operating at 560 Mbit/s between Europe and North America. It was built by an international consortium of co-owners and suppliers. Co-owners included AT&T Corporation, British Telecom and France Telecom.
A submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the seabed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean and sea. The first submarine communications cables were laid beginning in the 1850s and carried telegraphy traffic, establishing the first instant telecommunications links between continents, such as the first transatlantic telegraph cable which became operational on 16 August 1858.
Hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) is a broadband telecommunications network that combines optical fiber and coaxial cable. It has been commonly employed globally by cable television operators since the early 1990s.
Hibernia Networks, alternately known as Hibernia Atlantic, was a privately held, US-owned provider of telecommunication services. It operated global network routes on self-healing rings in North America, Europe and Asia including submarine communications cable systems in the North Atlantic Ocean which connected Canada, the United States, the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom and mainland Europe. Hibernia managed cable landing stations in Dublin, Republic of Ireland; Coleraine, Northern Ireland; Southport, England; Halifax, Canada; Lynn, Massachusetts, United States.
Optical networking is a means of communication that uses signals encoded in light to transmit information in various types of telecommunications networks. These include limited range local-area networks (LAN) or wide area networks (WANs), which cross metropolitan and regional areas as well as long-distance national, international and transoceanic networks. It is a form of optical communication that relies on optical amplifiers, lasers or LEDs and wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) to transmit large quantities of data, generally across fiber-optic cables. Because it is capable of achieving extremely high bandwidth, it is an enabling technology for the Internet and telecommunication networks that transmit the vast majority of all human and machine-to-machine information.
Fiber-optic communication is a method of transmitting information from one place to another by sending pulses of infrared or visible light through an optical fiber. The light is a form of carrier wave that is modulated to carry information. Fiber is preferred over electrical cabling when high bandwidth, long distance, or immunity to electromagnetic interference is required. This type of communication can transmit voice, video, and telemetry through local area networks or across long distances.
Telecommunications engineering is a subfield of electronics engineering which seeks to design and devise systems of communication at a distance. The work ranges from basic circuit design to strategic mass developments. A telecommunication engineer is responsible for designing and overseeing the installation of telecommunications equipment and facilities, such as complex electronic switching system, and other plain old telephone service facilities, optical fiber cabling, IP networks, and microwave transmission systems. Telecommunications engineering also overlaps with broadcast engineering.
SHEFA-2 is an undersea communication cable linking the Faroe Islands to mainland Scotland via the Northern Isles. It is named after the route on which it is being deployed (SHEtland-FAroes) and succeeds an earlier cable called SHEFA-1 on the same route.
UK-Belgium 5 was a submarine communications cable linking the United Kingdom and Belgium. It was the first international undersea cable system to use optical fibres rather than coaxial cable.
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha is a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic, consisting of the island of Saint Helena, Ascension Island and the archipelago of Tristan da Cunha including Gough Island. Their communications provision includes dedicated radio and television stations, and telecommunications infrastructure.
SAex is a proposed submarine communications cable linking South Africa to the United States with branches to Namibia, Saint Helena, and Brazil.
MAREA is a 6,605 km long transatlantic communications cable connecting the United States with Spain. Owned and funded by Microsoft and Facebook, but constructed and operated by Telxius, a subsidiary of the Spanish telecom company Telefónica, it is the "highest-capacity submarine cable in the world" with a system design capacity of 200 terabits per second as of 2019.
Hibernia Express is a submarine communications cable system that was privately owned by Hibernia Networks, linking Canada, Ireland, and the UK. Hibernia Express is now owned by telecommunications provider GTT Communications, Inc. after their acquisition of Hibernia Networks. With a latency of 58.95ms, the cable currently provides the lowest latency fiber optic route between the NY4 data center in Secaucus, New Jersey and London.
Dunant is a private 250 Tbit/s 6,600 kilometre transatlantic communications cable that connects the United States with France (Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez). Named for Henry Dunant, it was announced by Google in 2018 and went live in 2020.
Grace Hopper is a private transatlantic communications cable that connects the United States of America with the UK (Bude) and Spain (Bilbao). It was announced by Google in 2020 and scheduled to go live in 2022. The US to UK (Bude) leg went live on 27 September 2022.