A cross-section of a submarine communications cable. 1. Polyethylene. 2. "Mylar" tape. 3. Stranded steel wires. 4. Aluminum water barrier. 5. Polycarbonate. 6. Copper or aluminum tube. 7. Petroleum jelly. 8. Optical fibers.

Submarine cables are laid using special cable layer ships, such as the modern René Descartes, operated by France Télécom Marine. A cable layer or cable ship is a deep-sea vessel designed and used to lay underwater cables for telecommunications electricity and such France Télécom () is the main Telecommunication company in France and one of the largest in the world

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. Basic principle A traditional landline telephone system also known as "plain old telephone service" (POTS, commonly handles both signaling and audio information Computer networking is the Engineering Discipline concerned with communication between Computer systems or devices Networking routers All modern cables use fibre optic technology to carry digital payloads, which are then used to carry telephone traffic as well as Internet and private data traffic. An optical fiber (or fibre) is a Glass or Plastic fiber that carries Light along its length The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks They are typically 69 mm in diameter and weigh around 10 kg per meter, although thinner and lighter cables are used for deep water sections. ^[1]

As of 2003, submarine cables link all the world's continents except Antarctica. A continent is one of several large Landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by Convention rather than any strict criteria with seven regions

History

Trials

After William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone had introduced their working telegraph in 1839, the idea of a submarine line across the Atlantic Ocean began to be thought of as a possible triumph of the future. William Cooke may refer to some of the following people William Fothergill Cooke - 1806-1879 English inventor William Ernest Cooke Sir Charles Wheatstone FRS (6 February 1802 - 19 October 1875 was a British Scientist and Inventor of many scientific breakthroughs Samuel Morse proclaimed his faith in it as early as the year 1840, and in 1842 he submerged a wire, insulated with tarred hemp and India rubber,^[2][3] in the water of New York harbour, and telegraphed through it. Samuel Finley Breese Morse ( April 27, 1791 &ndash April 2, 1872) was an American painter of portraits and historic This article is about the cultivation and uses of industrial hemp not its psychoactive cousin Cannabis (drug. New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous The following autumn Wheatstone performed a similar experiment in Swansea bay. Swansea ( Abertawe "mouth of the Tawe " is a city and county in Wales. A good insulator to cover the wire and prevent the electric current from leaking into the water was necessary for the success of a long submarine line. An insulator, also called a Dielectric, is a material that resists the flow of Electric current. India rubber had been tried by Moritz von Jacobi, the Prussian electrical engineer, as far back as the early 1800s. Moritz Hermann (Boris Semyonovich von Jacobi (Борис Семёнович (Морис-Герман Якоби ( September 21, 1801 &ndash March 10 Prussia ( Latin: Borussia, Prutenia; Prūsija Prūsija Prusy Old Prussian: Prūsa) was most recently a historic state Electrical engineering, sometimes referred to as electrical and electronic engineering, is a field of Engineering that deals with the study and application of

Another insulating gum which could be melted by heat and readily applied to wire made its appearance in 1842. Gutta-percha, the adhesive juice of the Palaquium gutta tree, was introduced to Europe by William Montgomerie, a Scottish surgeon in the service of the British East India Company. Gutta-percha ( Palaquium) is a genus of tropical Trees native to Southeast Asia and northern Australasia, from Taiwan south to Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. Surgery (from the χειρουργική cheirourgikē, via chirurgiae meaning "hand work" is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental The Honourable East India Company ( HEIC) referred to most commonly as the East India Company, also historically and colloquially as John Company, or Twenty years earlier he had seen whips made of it in Singapore, and he believed that it would be useful in the fabrication of surgical apparatus. Singapore Michael Faraday and Wheatstone soon discovered the merits of gutta-percha as an insulator, and in 1845 the latter suggested that it should be employed to cover the wire which was proposed to be laid from Dover to Calais. Michael Faraday, FRS ( September 22 1791 – August 25 1867) was an English Dover is a town and major ferry port in the county of Kent, England. Calais (kaˈlɛ in English often kæˈleɪ traditional English pronunciation /ˈkælɨs/ Kales is a town in northern France. It was tried on a wire laid across the Rhine between Deutz and Cologne. The Rhine (Rhein Rijn Rhin Reno Rain Rhenus is one of the longest and most important Rivers in Europe at 1320 kilometres (820 mi with an average discharge In 1849 C.V. Walker, electrician to the South Eastern Railway, submerged a wire coated with it, or, as it is technically called, a gutta-percha core, along the coast off Dover. Charles Vincent Walker FRS ( 20 March, 1812 – 24 December, 1882) was an English Electrical engineer and For the railway in India see South Eastern Railway (India South Eastern Railway (SER was a railway company in the United Kingdom

The first commercial cables

In August 1850, John Watkins Brett's Anglo-French Telegraph Company laid the first line across the English Channel. It was simply a copper wire coated with gutta-percha, without any other protection. Copper (ˈkɒpɚ is a Chemical element with the symbol Cu (cuprum and Atomic number 29 Gutta-percha ( Palaquium) is a genus of tropical Trees native to Southeast Asia and northern Australasia, from Taiwan south to The experiment served to keep alive the concession, and the next year, on November 13, 1851, a protected core, or true cable, was laid from a government hulk, the Blazer, which was towed across the Channel. A concession is a business operated under a Contract or License associated with a degree of exclusivity in business within a certain geographical area Events 1002 - English king Ethelred orders the killing of all Danes in England, known today as the St 1851 ( MDCCCLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common year A hulk is a Ship that is afloat but incapable of going to sea The next year, Great Britain and Ireland were linked together. See also Kingdom of Great Britain Great Britain (Breatainn Mhòr Prydain Fawr Breten Veur Graet Breetain is the larger of the two main islands Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world In 1852, a cable laid by the Submarine Telegraph Company linked London to Paris for the first time. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city In May, 1853, England was joined to the Netherlands by a cable across the North Sea, from Orford Ness to The Hague. The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands The North Sea is a marginal, Epeiric sea of the Atlantic Ocean on the European Continental shelf. Orford Ness is a Cuspate foreland shingle spit on the Suffolk coast in Great Britain, linked to the mainland at Aldeburgh and stretching It was laid by the Monarch, a paddle steamer which had been fitted for the work. A paddle steamer is a ship or boat driven by a Steam engine that uses one or more Paddle wheels to develop thrust for propulsion.

Transatlantic telegraph cable

Main article: Transatlantic telegraph cable

The first attempt at laying a transatlantic telegraph cable was promoted by Cyrus West Field, who persuaded British industrialists to fund and lay one in 1858. The first transatlantic Telegraph Cable crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Foilhommerum Valentia Island, in western Ireland to The first transatlantic Telegraph Cable crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Foilhommerum Valentia Island, in western Ireland to Cyrus West Field (November 30 1819&ndashJuly 12 1892 was an American businessman and financier who led the Atlantic Telegraph Company, the company that successfully However, the technology of the day was not capable of supporting the project, it was plagued with problems from the outset, and was in operation for only a month. Subsequent attempts in 1865 and 1866 with the world's largest steamship, the SS Great Eastern, used a more advanced technology and produced the first successful transatlantic cable. History Concept After the Great Exhibition of 1851 which had publicized Australia's wealth and natural resources waves of people were eager to emigrate from The Great Eastern later went on to lay the first cable to India in 1870.

Submarine cable to India, Singapore, the Far East and Australasia

An 1863 cable to Mumbai provided a crucial link to Saudi Arabia. Mumbai ( Marathi:,, IPA: formerly Bombay, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the financial The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, KSA ( المملكة العربية السعودية, al-Mamlaka al-ʻArabiyya as-Suʻūdiyya) or Suudi ^[4] In 1870 Bombay was linked to London via submarine cable in a combined operation by four cable companies, at the behest of the British Government. In 1872 these four companies were combined to form the mammoth globespanning Eastern Telegraph Company, owned by John Pender. A spin-off from Eastern Telegraph Company was a second sister company, the Eastern Extension, China and Australasia Telegraph Company, commonly known simply as "the Extension".

Submarine cable across the Pacific

This was completed in 1902–03, linking the US mainland to Hawaii in 1902 and Guam to the Philippines in 1903. ^[5] Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji were also linked in 1902. ^[6]

The North Pacific Cable system was the first laser regenerative (repeatered) system to completely cross the Pacific from the US mainland to Japan. The US portion of NPC was manufactured in Portland Oregon in 1990 at STC Submarine Systems, and later Alcatel Submarine Networks (the plant was shutdown in 2001). The system was laid by Cable & Wireless Marine on the CS Cable Venture in 1991.

Construction

Transatlantic cables of the 19th century consisted of an outer layer of iron and later steel wire, wrapping India rubber, wrapping gutta-percha, which surrounded a multi-stranded copper wire at the core. Iron (ˈаɪɚn is a Chemical element with the symbol Fe (ferrum and Atomic number 26 Steel is an Alloy consisting mostly of Iron, with a Carbon content between 0 The portions closest to each shore landing had additional protective armor wires. Gutta-percha, a natural polymer similar to rubber, had nearly ideal properties for insulating submarine cables, with the exception of a rather high dielectric constant which made cable capacitance high. Gutta-percha ( Palaquium) is a genus of tropical Trees native to Southeast Asia and northern Australasia, from Taiwan south to A polymer is a large Molecule ( Macromolecule) composed of repeating Structural units typically connected by Covalent Chemical bonds A dielectric is a nonconducting substance ie an insulator. The term was coined by William Whewell in response to a request from Michael Faraday. Capacitance is a measure of the amount of Electric charge stored (or separated for a given Electric potential. Gutta-percha was not replaced as a cable insulation until polyethylene was introduced in the 1930s. Polyethylene or polythene ( IUPAC name poly(ethene) is a Thermoplastic commodity heavily used in consumer products (notably the In the 1920s, the American military experimented with rubber-insulated cables as an alternative to gutta-percha, since American interests controlled significant supplies of rubber but no gutta-percha manufacturers.

Bandwidth problems

Early long-distance submarine telegraph cables exhibited formidable electrical problems. Unlike modern cables, the technology of the 19th century did not allow for in-line repeater amplifiers in the cable. A repeater is an electronic device that receives a signal and Retransmits it at a higher level and/or higher power or onto the other side of an obstruction Generally an amplifier or simply amp, is any device that changes usually increases the amplitude of a signal. Large voltages were used to attempt to overcome the electrical resistance of their tremendous length but the cables' distributed capacitance and inductance combined to distort the telegraph pulses in the line, severely limiting the data rate for telegraph operation. Electrical tension (or voltage after its SI unit, the Volt) is the difference of electrical potential between two points of an electrical Electrical resistance is a ratio of the degree to which an object opposes an Electric current through it measured in Ohms Its reciprocal quantity is Capacitance is a measure of the amount of Electric charge stored (or separated for a given Electric potential. In Electrical circuits, any Electric current i produces a Magnetic field and hence generates a total Magnetic flux \Phi acting Thus, the cables had very limited bandwidth.

As early as 1823, Francis Ronalds had observed that electric signals were retarded in passing through an insulated wire or core laid underground, and the same effect was noticeable on cores immersed in water, and particularly on the lengthy cable between England and The Hague. Sir Francis Ronalds (1788-1873 was a meteorologist, an inventor and a pioneer of the electric Telegraph. Water is a common Chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of Life. Michael Faraday showed that the effect was caused by capacitance between the wire and the earth (or water) surrounding it. Michael Faraday, FRS ( September 22 1791 – August 25 1867) was an English In Electrical engineering, the term ground or earth has several meanings depending on the specific application areas Faraday had noted that when a wire is charged from a battery (for example when pressing a telegraph key), the electric charge in the wire induces an opposite charge in the water as it travels along. In electronics a battery is a combination of two or more Electrochemical cells which store chemical Energy which can be converted into electrical energy Electric charge is a fundamental conserved property of some Subatomic particles which determines their Electromagnetic interaction. As the two charges attract each other, the exciting charge is retarded. The core acts as a capacitor distributed along the length of the cable which, coupled with the resistance and inductance of the cable limits the speed at which a signal travels through the conductor of the cable. A capacitor is a passive electrical component that can store Energy in the Electric field between a pair of conductors In Electrical circuits, any Electric current i produces a Magnetic field and hence generates a total Magnetic flux \Phi acting Speed is the rate of motion, or equivalently the rate of change in position often expressed as Distance d traveled per unit of In Telecommunication, signalling (UK spelling or signaling (US spelling has the following meanings The use of signals for controlling communications Electrical conduction is the movement of electrically charged particles through a Transmission medium ( Electrical conductor)

Early cable designs failed to analyze these effects correctly. Famously, E.O.W. Whitehouse had dismissed the problems and insisted that a transatlantic cable was feasible. Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse ( 1816 - 26 January 1890) was an English surgeon, better-known for his ultimately unsuccessful endeavours When he subsequently became electrician of the Atlantic Telegraph Company he became involved in a public dispute with William Thomson. See also Transatlantic telegraph cable The Atlantic Telegraph Company was a company formed in 1856 to undertake and exploit a commercial William Thomson 1st Baron Kelvin (or Lord Kelvin) OM, GCVO, PC, PRS, FRSE, (26 June 1824 &ndash 17 December 1907 Whitehouse believed that, with enough voltage, any cable could be driven. Because of the excessive voltages recommended by Whitehouse, Cyrus West Field's first transatlantic cable never worked reliably, and eventually short circuited to the ocean when Whitehouse increased the voltage beyond the cable design limit. Short Circuit is a 1986 comedy Science fiction film starring Ally Sheedy and Steve Guttenberg and directed by

Thomson designed a complex electric-field generator that minimized current by resonating the cable, and a sensitive light-beam mirror galvanometer for detecting the faint telegraph signals. In Physics, resonance is the tendency of a system to Oscillate at maximum Amplitude at certain frequencies, known as the system's A mirror Galvanometer is a mechanical meter that senses electric current, except that instead of moving a needle it moves a Mirror. Thomson became wealthy on the royalties of these, and several related inventions. Thomson was elevated to Lord Kelvin for his contributions in this area, chiefly an accurate mathematical model of the cable, which permitted design of the equipment for accurate telegraphy. William Thomson 1st Baron Kelvin (or Lord Kelvin) OM, GCVO, PC, PRS, FRSE, (26 June 1824 &ndash 17 December 1907 Note The term model has a different meaning in Model theory, a branch of Mathematical logic. The effects of atmospheric electricity and the geomagnetic field on submarine cables also motivated many of the early polar expeditions. Atmospheric electricity is the regular diurnal variations of the Earth 's atmospheric electromagnetic network (or more broadly any Earth 's magnetic field (and the surface magnetic field) is approximately a Magnetic dipole, with one pole near the North pole (see The International Geophysical Year or IGY was an international scientific effort that lasted from July 1, 1957, to December 31, 1958

Thomson had produced a mathematical analysis of propagation of electrical signals into telegraph cables based on their capacitance and resistance, but since long submarine cables operated at slow rates, he did not include the effects of inductance. By the 1890s, Oliver Heaviside had produced the modern general form of the telegrapher's equations which included the effects of inductance and which were essential to extending the theory of transmission lines to higher frequencies required for high-speed data and voice. The telegrapher's equations (or just telegraph equations) are a pair of linear Differential equations which describe the Voltage and current on A transmission line is the material medium or structure that forms all or part of a path from one place to another for directing the transmission of energy Frequency is a measure of the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit Time.

Transatlantic telephony

Five submarine communication cables crossing the Scottish shore at Scad Head on Hoy, Orkney. Hoy (from Old Norse Háey meaning high island is one of the Orkney Islands in Scotland. Orkney (also known as the Orkney Islands or incorrectly the Orkneys) is an Archipelago in northern Scotland, situated 10 miles (16 km north

While laying a transatlantic telephone cable was seriously considered from the 1920s, a number of technological advances were required for cost-efficient telecommunications that did not arrive until the 1940s. Basic principle A traditional landline telephone system also known as "plain old telephone service" (POTS, commonly handles both signaling and audio information A first attempt to lay a pupinized telephone cable failed in the early 1930s due to the Great Depression. In Electronics, a loading coil or load coil is a Coil ( Inductor) that does not provide coupling to any other circuit, but

In 1942, Siemens Brothers of Charlton, London in conjunction with the United Kingdom National Physical Laboratory, adapted submarine communications cable technology to create the world's first submarine oil pipeline in Operation Pluto during World War II. Carl Wilhelm Siemens (en Charles William Siemens, known as Sir William Siemens) ( 4 April, 1823 &ndash 19 November, 1883 Charlton is an area and an electoral ward south-east London, in the London Borough of Greenwich, located between Greenwich and Woolwich The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The National Physical Laboratory (NPL is the national Measurement standards laboratory for the United Kingdom, based at Bushy Park in Teddington World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including

TAT-1 (Transatlantic No. TAT-1 (Transatlantic No 1 was the first submarine Transatlantic telephone cable system 1) was the first transatlantic telephone cable system. A transatlantic telephone cable is a Submarine communications cable that carries telephone traffic under the Atlantic Ocean. Between 1955 and 1956, cable was laid between Gallanach Bay, near Oban, Scotland and Clarenville, Newfoundland and Labrador. Oban ( An t-Òban in Scottish Gaelic meaning The Little Bay) is a Resort Town within the Argyll and Bute council area Clarenville is a Canadian town on the east coast of Newfoundland in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador It was inaugurated on September 25, 1956, initially carrying 36 telephone channels. Events 303 - On a voyage preaching the Gospel, Saint Fermin of Pamplona is beheaded in Amiens, France Year 1956 ( MCMLVI) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

Technological developments

In the 1960s, transoceanic cables were waveguides that transmitted frequency-multiplexed radio signals. Frequency-division multiplexing ( FDM) is a form of signal Multiplexing where multiple Baseband signals are Modulated on different frequency A high voltage direct current wire powered the repeaters. These repeaters are among the most reliable vacuum tube amplifiers ever designed. This article is about the electronic device not an evacuated pipe used for experiments in Free-fall. ^[7] Many of these cables are still usable, but abandoned because their capacity is too small to be commercially viable. Some have been used as scientific instruments to measure earthquake waves and other geomagnetic events. ^[8]

Diagram of an optical submarine cable repeater.

In the 1980s, fibre optic cables were developed. An optical fiber (or fibre) is a Glass or Plastic fiber that carries Light along its length The first transatlantic telephone cable to use optical fibre was TAT-8, which went into operation in 1988. TAT-8 was the 8th Transatlantic telephone cable,initially carrying 40000 telephone circuits (simultaneous calls between USA, England and France

Modern optical fiber repeaters use a solid-state optical amplifier, usually an Erbium-doped fiber amplifier. An optical amplifier is a device that amplifies an Optical signal directly without the need to first convert it to an electrical signal An optical amplifier is a device that amplifies an Optical signal directly without the need to first convert it to an electrical signal Each repeater contains separate equipment for each fibre. These comprise signal reforming, error measurement and controls. A solid-state laser dispatches the signal into the next length of fiber. The solid-state laser excites a short length of doped fiber that itself acts as a laser amplifier. As the light passes through the fibre, it is amplified. This system also permits wavelength-division multiplexing, which dramatically increases the capacity of the fiber. In Fiber-optic communications wavelength-division multiplexing ( WDM) is a technology which multiplexes multiple optical carrier signals on a

Repeaters are powered by a constant direct current passed down the conductor near the centre of the cable, so all repeaters in a cable are in series. Power feed equipment is installed at the terminal stations. Typically both ends share the current generation with one end providing a positive voltage and the other a negative voltage. A virtual earth point exists roughly half way along the cable under normal operation. The amplifiers or repeaters derive their power from the potential difference drop across them.

The optic fiber used in undersea cables is chosen for its exceptional clarity, permitting runs of more than 100 kilometers between repeaters to minimize the number of amplifiers and the distortion they cause.

Originally, submarine cables were simple point-to-point connections. With the development of submarine branching units (SBUs), more than one destination could be served by a single cable system. A Submarine Branching Unit is a piece of equipment used in submarine telecommunications cable systems at Cable landing points to allow the cable to split to serve more Modern cable systems now usually have their fibres arranged in a self-healing ring to increase their redundancy, with the submarine sections following different paths on the ocean floor. A self-healing ring, or SHR is a common configuration in Telecommunications transmission systems One driver for this development was that the capacity of cable systems had become so large that it was not possible to completely back-up a cable system with satellite capacity, so it became necessary to provide sufficient terrestrial back-up capability. Not all telecommunications organizations wish to take advantage of this capability, so modern cable systems may have dual landing points in some countries (where back-up capability is required) and only single landing points in other countries where back-up capability is either not required, the capacity to the country is small enough to be backed up by other means, or having back-up is regarded as too expensive. A cable landing point is the location where a submarine or other underwater cable makes landfall

A further redundant-path development over and above the self-healing rings approach is the "Mesh Network" whereby fast switching equipment is used to transfer services between network paths with little to no effect on higher-level protocols if a path becomes inoperable. As more paths become available to use between two points, the less likely it is that one or two simultaneous failures will prevent end-to-end service.

Cable repair

Cables can be broken by fishing trawlers, anchoring, undersea avalanches and even shark bites. Trawling is a method of Fishing that involves pulling a large Fishing net through the water behind one or more boats Breaks were common in the early cable laying era due to the use of simple materials and the laying of cables directly on the ocean floor rather than burying the cables in trenches in vulnerable areas. Cables were also sometimes cut by enemy forces in wartime. Cable breaks are by no means a thing of the past, with more than 50 repairs a year in the Atlantic alone,^[9] and significant breaks in 2006 and 2008. The 2006 Hengchun earthquake occurred on Tuesday December 26 2006 at 1225 UTC (2025 local time) with an Epicenter off the The 2008 submarine cable disruption involved damage involving up to five high-speed Internet Submarine communications cables in the Mediterranean Sea and

To effect repairs on deep cables, the damaged portion is brought to the surface using a grapple. A grapple is a Hook or claw used to catch or hold something A ship's Anchor is a type of grapple especially the "grapnel" anchor Deep cables must be cut at the seabed and each end separately brought to the surface, whereupon a new section is spliced in. The repaired cable is longer than the original, so the excess is deliberately laid in a 'U' shape on the sea-bed. A submersible can be used to repair cables that are near the surface. A submersible, or Bathyscaphe, is a type of Underwater vessel with limited mobility which is typically transported to its area of operation by a surface

A number of ports near important cable routes became homes to specialised cable repair ships. Halifax, Nova Scotia was home to a half dozen such vessels for most of the 20th century including long-lived vessels such as the CS Cyrus West Field, CS Minia and CS Mackay-Bennett. See also Halifax Nova Scotia See also Halifax Regional Municipality municipal election 2008 Halifax Regional Municipality is the capital Nova Scotia (ˌnəʊvəˈskəʊʃə ( Latin for New Scotland; Alba Nuadh Nouvelle-Écosse is a Canadian province located on Canada 's The CS Mackay-Bennett was a cable repair Ship registered in London England owned by the Commercial Cable Company The latter two were contracted to recover victims from the sinking of the RMS Titanic. The crews of these vessels developed many new techniques to repair and improve cable laying, such as the "plough", a device to bury cables.

Intelligence Gathering

Underwater cables, which cannot be kept under constant surveillance, have tempted intelligence-gathering organizations since the late 19th century. Frequently at the beginning of wars nations have cut the cables of the other sides in order to shape the information flows into cables that were being monitored. The most ambitious efforts occurred in World War I, when British and German forces systematically attempted to destroy the others' worldwide communications systems by cutting their cables with surface ships or submarines. ^[10] During the Cold War the US Navy and NSA succeeded in placing wire taps on Soviet underwater communication lines in Operation Ivy Bells. Cold War is the state of conflict tension and competition that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR and their respective allies from the The National Security Agency/ Central Security Service ( NSA/CSS) is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States government Operation Ivy Bells was a US Navy and NSA mission whose objective was to place wire taps on Soviet underwater communication lines

Notable events

The Newfoundland earthquake of 1929 broke a series of trans-Atlantic cables by triggering a massive undersea avalanche. The 1929 Grand Banks earthquake, also called the Laurentian Slope earthquake and the South Shore Disaster, was a magnitude 7 The sequence of breaks helped scientists chart the progress of the avalanche.

In July 2005, a portion of the SEA-ME-WE 3 submarine cable located 35 kilometers (21 miles) south of Karachi that provided Pakistan's major outer communications became defective, disrupting almost all of Pakistan's communications with the rest of the world, and affecting approximately 10 million Internet users. 2005: January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October SEA-ME-WE 3 or South-East Asia - Middle East - Western Europe 3 is an optical submarine telecommunications cable linking those regions and is the longest in the world (ڪراچي) is the largest city in Pakistan. It is the world's second largest city proper behind Mumbai in terms of population which exceeds 10 million Pakistan () officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia, Southwest Asia, Middle East and ^[11][12][13]

The 2006 Hengchun earthquake on December 26, 2006 rendered numerous cables near Taiwan inoperable. The 2006 Hengchun earthquake occurred on Tuesday December 26 2006 at 1225 UTC (2025 local time) with an Epicenter off the Events 1481 - Battle of Westbrook - Holland defeats troops of Utrecht. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. The 2006 Hengchun earthquake occurred on Tuesday December 26 2006 at 1225 UTC (2025 local time) with an Epicenter off the

In March, 2007, pirates stole an 11-kilometre section of the T-V-H submarine cable that connected Thailand, Vietnam, and Hong Kong, affecting Vietnam's Internet users with far slower speeds. March 2007 is the third month of the year It began on a Thursday, and ended 31 days later on a Saturday. Piracy is Robbery committed at sea or sometimes on shore without a commission from a sovereign Nation (as distinct from Privateering T-V-H ( Thailand-Vietnam-Hong Kong) is a submarine telecommunications cable system in the South China Sea linking Thailand Vietnam and Hong Kong The Kingdom of Thailand (ˈtaɪlænd ราชอาณาจักรไทย, râːtɕʰa-ʔaːnaːtɕɑ̀k-tʰɑj Vietnam (ˌviːɛtˈnɑːm Việt Nam) officially Hong Kong ( officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located on China 's south coast on the Pearl River Delta, and borders The thieves attempted to sell the 100 tons of illicit cargo as scrap. ^[14]

The 2008 submarine cable disruption was a series of cable outages, two of the three Suez Canal cables, two disruptions in the Persian Gulf, and one in Malaysia. The 2008 submarine cable disruption involved damage involving up to five high-speed Internet Submarine communications cables in the Mediterranean Sea and The Suez Canal is a Canal in Egypt. Opened in 1869 it allows Water transportation between Europe and Asia without circumnavigation It caused massive communications disruptions to India and the Middle East. India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country The Middle East is a Subcontinent with no clear boundaries often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East. ^[15][16]

Owners and operators of cable-laying ships^[17]

• ACPL
• NSW
• ASN Marine
• Elettra
• FT Marine
• Global Marine Systems Limited
• NTT World Engineering Marine Corporation (NTT-WEM)
• S. B. Submarine Systems
• YIT Primatel Ltd.
• E-MARINE
• IT International Telecom Inc.
• Subsea 7

See also

• List of international submarine communications cables
• List of domestic submarine communications cables
• Transatlantic telegraph cable
• Transatlantic telephone cable
• Optical fibre
• Cable layer (ship)

References

External links

• The International Cable Protection Committee -- includes a register of submarine cables worldwide (though not always updated as often as one might hope)
• Submarine Cable Market Overview, November, 2007 -- includes details of many major submarine cable systems
• Timeline of Submarine Communications Cables, 1850-2008
• France Telecom's Fishermen's/Submarine Cable Information
• Oregon Fisherman's Cable Committee
• Website with comprehensive list of cable landing sites and suppliers globally (contains many duplicates and incomplete data)

Articles

• History of the Atlantic Cable & Submarine Telegraphy - Wire Rope and the Submarine Cable Industry
• 1939 Article on Laying Submarine Cables
• Mother Earth Mother Board - Wired article by Neal Stephenson about submarine cables
• Nature article - Geomagnetic induction on a transatlantic communications cable
• Hunt, Bruce J. Lord Cable. Europhysics News (2004), Vol. 35 No 6.
• Winkler, Jonathan Reed. Nexus: Strategic Communications and American Security in World War I. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008) Account of how U. S. government discovered strategic significance of communications lines, including submarine cables, during World War I.
• Animations from Alcatel showing how submarine cables are installed and repaired
• Work begins to repair severed net

Maps

• Alcatel Optical Fiber Submarine systems Map, 2007.
• Map and Satellite views of US landing sites for transatlantic cables
• Map and Satellite views of US landing sites for transpacific cables
• Kingfisher Information Service - source of free maps of cable routes in and around the UK/North Sea area