History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications
from the first submarine cable of 1850 to the worldwide fiber optic network
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History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications |
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Cable Stamps - China-Korea,
Chino-Japanese, OLUHO, |
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to Bill Glover for providing the stamp images and text for this page.
All material on this page is copyright © 2006 Bill Glover |
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1995 CHINA - KOREA FIBRE OPTIC CABLE
The Chinese and Korean authorities awarded the contract for supplying and laying the cable to the Tasman Cable Company, Sydney, Australia. They in turn contracted Sino British Submarine Systems, who used Flexservice 3, to lay the 585 km long cable, which was buried throughout its length to avoid damage by trawlers. The stamp was originally due to be issued on 15 December 1995, but at the last moment it was cancelled without any reason being given. FDC had already been prepared and cancelled with the special postmark for the 15 December 1995. Rather than waste all these covers the Chinese National Philatelic Corporation added an additional copy of the cable stamp plus a 30 fen stamp to cover registration. These were cancelled with a normal postmark on the new day of issue 8 February 1996. The Korean shore ends were landed at Taean, the Chinese at Qingdao, Shandong Province. The second FDC is cancelled with the regular postmark of Qingdao and a special postmark dated 8 February 1996. The rectangular cachet at the bottom of the cover states. "The date of issue of the commemorative stamp for the opening of the China - Korea submarine cable has been changed to 8 February 1996." The FDC information was supplied by Fuchen Wang, Nanjing, PR of China. |
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1976 CHINO-JAPANESE CABLE An agreement between the Shanghai Post and Telegraph Bureau and KDD, Japan, to lay a cable between the two countries was signed on May 29 1974. The 850 km cable was manufactured by the Ocean Telegraph Company, Yokohama and laid in 1975 by KDD Maru. The cable opened for service in 1976 and had a capacity of 640 telephone circuits. |
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OLUHO Japan
1977 50y OLUHO: OKINAWA - LUZON - HONG KONG. The cable from Okinawa to Luzon (OLU) was 749 nm long and was laid by KDD Maru with Denko Maru laying the Okinawa shore ends and CS Recorder (3) laying those at Luzon. The Luzon - Hong Kong section (LUHO) was 475 nm long and CS Mercury undertook the laying. CS Recorder (3) laid both shore ends.
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SEA
ME WE 1 Djibouti
1984 250f Djibouti 1984 250f commemorates the signing of the agreement to instal SEA ME WE 1 SEA ME WE:- South East Asia - Middle East - Western Europe, a 13500 km (7275 nm) co-axial cable linking Singapore and France with landings at Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Italy. Segment A:- Singapore - Indonesia 641 km with 70 repeaters laid by CS Vercors and manufactured by Submarcom. Opened for service 15 November 1984. Capacity 1260 circuits. Segment B:- Indonesia - Sri Lanka 2638 km with 223 repeaters, laid by CS Cable Venture and manufactured by NEC. Opened for service 31 December 1985. Capacity 1080 circuits. Segment C:- Sri Lanka - Djibouti 4326 km long with 287 repeaters, laid by CS Vercors and manufactured by Submarcom. Opened for service 31 December 1985. Capacity 1080 circuits. Segment D:- Djibouti - Saudi Arabia 1443 km with 108 repeaters laid by CS Cable Venture and manufactured by Standard Telephone & Cables Ltd. Opened for service 31 December 1985. Capacity 1200 circuits. Segment E:- Saudi Arabia - Egypt 1293 km with 156 repeaters laid by CS Vercors and manufactured by Submarcom. Opened for service 31 December 1985. Capacity 2580 circuits. Segment F:- Suez - Alexandria 390 km land line with 86 repeaters manufactured by Siemens. Opened for service 10 June 1986. Capacity 2100 circuits. Segment G:- Egypt - Italy 1908 km with 194 repeaters laid by CS Vercors and manufactured by Submarcom. Opened for service 28 February 1986. capacity 2580 circuits. Segment H:- Italy - France 946 km with 99 repeaters laid by
CS Vercors and manufactured by The complete cable was officially opened on 8 September 1986 and was withdrawn from service in 1999. |
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| SEA ME WE 2 Djibouti 1991 130f A 18000 km fibre optic cable, the first in this region, linking Singapore and France with landings at Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Cyprus, Turkey, Tunisia, Algeria and Italy. SEGMENT 1 Singapore - Indonesia 1040 km long with 8 repeaters laid by CS Vercors. The cable was manufactured by Alcatel Submarcom. SEGMENT 2 Djibouti - Indonesia with branching units to provide links to India and Sri Lanka. Djibouti to India 3665 km long with 28 repeaters was laid by CS Cable Venture and manufactured by STC Submarine Systems. Indonesia - India branching unit 5465 km long with 41 repeaters laid by CS Vercors. The cable was manufactured by STC Submarine Systems 1260 km and Alcatel Submarcom 4205 km. SEGMENT 3 Suez - Djibouti with a branching unit to Saudi Arabia 2760 km long with 20 repeaters laid by CS Global Sentinel and manufactured by Submarine Systems Inc (AT&T) SEGMENT 4 Alexandria - Suez two land cables both passing through Cairo. Route 1: 400 km and Route 2: 470 km both manufactured by Alcatel Cable. SEGMENT 5 France - Egypt with branching units to Algeria, Tunisia and Italy. Total length of all cable laid 3660 km with 31 repeaters all laid by CS Vercors and manufactured by Alcatel Submarcom. SEGMENT 6 Cyprus - Egypt 600 km long with 4 repeaters laid by CS Global Sentinel. The cable was manufactured by Submarine Systems Inc. (AT&T) SEGMENT 7 Turkey - Egypt 690 km long with 5 repeaters laid by CS Global Sentinel. The cable was manufactured by Submarine Systems Inc. (AT&T) |
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| SEA ME WE 3 Macau
1999 50a
SEA ME WE 3 A 40000 km fibre optic cable, opened for service 30 August 1999, linking the following countries (In alphabetical order). Australia, Belgium, Brunei, PR China, Cyprus, Djibouti, Egypt, France, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Morocco, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Vietnam. Cable ships used to lay the cable were Agile, Cable Installer, Maersk Defender, Maersk Fighter, Fresnel, Fu Lai, Nexus, Leon Thevenin and Vercors Manufacturers of the cable were Alcatel Submarine Networks, AT&T - SSI, KDD-SCS and Pirelli |
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JAPAN SEA CABLE 1969 Japan 1969 Special cancellation The 477 nm co-axial cable which ran from Naoetsu, Sekiyama, Japan to Nakhodka, Maritime Territory, USSR, was installed by the United States Underseas Cable Corporation for the Great Northern Telegraph Company and the Kokusai Denshin Denwa Company. KDD Maru was chartered for laying the cable which was manufactured by the Ocean Cable Company as were the 28 repeaters. The special cancel dated 25 June 1969 is from the Naoetsu Post Office and was issued on the day the cable opened for service. The cable was taken out of service in July 1995. It is now used by the Tokyo University for earthquake research. This additional information was supplied by S. Miura, Tokyo, Japan. |
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Many additional stamps are shown on the pages linked from the Stamps Index page
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Last revised: 18 May, 2010 |
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