History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications
from the first submarine cable of 1850 to the worldwide fiber optic network

1986 - South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe
Submarine Cable System

On 14 February 1984, a consortium of 22 telecommunications administrations from 21 countries signed the agreement for the construction, operation and maintenance of the South-East Asia - Middle-East - Western Europe Submarine Cable System.

The Submarine Cable System has eight segments linking Singapore to France via Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Italy. At a length of about 13,000 km and costing over S$800 million, it is one of the longest submarine cables in the world.

The Submarine Cable System will be used to carry all types of telecommunications services including telephone, telex, telegram, data and facsimile. The submarine cables which are shielded from external interference, offer very high quality telecommunications services under all weather conditions.

Until 1985, except for trans-border telecommunications utilising terrestrial land co-axial cable and micro-wave links, international telecommunications between East Asia, the Middle East and Europe have depended almost entirely on satellite communications. The introduction of this submarine cable will, for the first time, provide an alternative telecommunications link for the countries in the Indian Ocean region.

At Singapore it will be interconnected with existing submarine cables such as the ASEAN submarine cables which was completed in 1984 and future submarine cable systems planned in the region. Two other submarine cable systems which will be completed in 1986 are the Singapore - Hong Kong - Taiwan Submarine Cable System and the Singapore - Indonesia - Australia Submarine Cable System.

Through these four submarine cable systems and a sophisticated network of satellite communications, Telecoms is increasingly playing its role in delivering the information technology to the business community and the general public.

Research Material Needed

The Atlantic Cable website is non-commercial, and its mission is to make available on line as much information as possible.

You can help - if you have cable material, old or new, please contact me. Cable samples, instruments, documents, brochures, souvenir books, photographs, family stories, all are valuable to researchers and historians.

If you have any cable-related items that you could photograph, copy, scan, loan, or sell, please email me: billb@ftldesign.com