Commonwealth Pacific Cable System: Difference between revisions

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COMPAC, the Commonwealth Pacific Cable System, was a undersea telephone cable system uniting Canada with New Zealand and Australia. It was completed by closing the last gap in Honolulu Harbor, Hawaii, at 6:25 a.m. B.S.T. on October 10, 1963. Public service of the cable commenced early in December 1963.^[1]

The system cost a total of $100 million and spanned 14,000 miles, from Oban in Scotland, via a microwave link across Canada, then on to Hawaii, Suva (Fiji), Auckland (New Zealand), and Sydney (Australia). Three cable ships-C.S. Mercury, C.S. Retriever, and H.M.T.S. Monarch-did the job. The link contains 11,000 miles of telephone cable, which, at the time, provided 80 two-way speech channels or 1,760 teleprinter circuits. In addition, the cable carries telegraph traffic, leased circuits for airlines, shipping companies and other commercial transmission.^[2]

References

^ Collins, Robert, A Voice from Afar: The History of Telecommunications in Canada, McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1977, pp. 292-295.
^ http://atlantic-cable.com/stamps/Other/index2.htm

[1] Collins, Robert, A Voice from Afar: The History of Telecommunications in Canada, McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1977, pp. 292-295.

[2] ttp://atlantic-cable.com/stamps/Other/index2.htm

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-'''COMPAC''', the Commonwealth Pacific Cable System, was a undersea telephone cable system uniting Canada with New Zealand and Australia.  It was inaugerated in 1963.  Direct distance dialing was initiated in Canada in 1958, beginning with customers in Toronto and during that same year the [[Trans-Canada Microwave]] system went into service.<ref> Collins, Robert, A Voice from Afar: The History of Telecommunications in Canada, McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1977, pp. 292-295.</ref>. The first trans-Atlantic telephone cable, jointly owned by the Canadian Overseas Telecommunication Corporation, British Post Office and AT&T, was brought into service in 1956, paving the way for telephone calls from Canada to Britain and Europe. An improved cable, CANTAT was installed in 1961.
+'''COMPAC''', the Commonwealth Pacific Cable System, was a undersea telephone cable system uniting Canada with New Zealand and Australia.  It was completed by closing the last gap in Honolulu Harbor, Hawaii, at 6:25 a.m. B.S.T. on October 10, 1963.  Public service of the cable commenced early in December 1963.<ref> Collins, Robert, A Voice from Afar: The History of Telecommunications in Canada, McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1977, pp. 292-295.</ref>
+The system cost a total of $100 million and spanned 14,000 miles, from [[Oban]] in Scotland, via a microwave link across Canada, then on to Hawaii, Suva (Fiji), Auckland (New Zealand), and Sydney (Australia).  Three [[cable layer|cable ships]]-C.S. Mercury, C.S. Retriever, and H.M.T.S. Monarch-did the job.  The link contains 11,000 miles of telephone cable, which, at the time, provided 80 two-way speech channels or 1,760 [[teleprinter]] circuits.  In addition, the cable carries telegraph traffic, leased circuits for airlines, shipping companies and other commercial transmission.<ref>http://atlantic-cable.com/stamps/Other/index2.htm</ref>
 ==References==