TAT-1

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TAT-1 (Transatlantic No. 1) was the first transatlantic telephone cable system . It lies between Oban in Scotland and Clarenville in Newfoundland . The cable was put into service on September 25, 1956.

history

The first transatlantic cable was laid from Cyrus West Field in 1858 . After only one month of operation, it was replaced in 1866. However, only telegraphic connections were possible with these cables. The radio telephone connection was put into operation in 1927. The call charge for three minutes was nine pounds ( around 600 euros based on today's purchasing power ). The technology for such a long submarine telephone cable ( electron tubes for the amplifiers, polyethylene instead of gutta-percha for insulation, carrier frequency process ) was only available in the 1940s. The cost of £ 120 million was borne by the UK Postal Service , AT&T , and 10 percent by the Canadian Overseas Telecommunications Corporation .

The cable was taken out of service in 1978.

technology

A separate cable was laid for each direction of speech. The cables each consisted of two armored shallow water sections and a 1500 nautical mile long deep sea section. A tube amplifier (51 in total) was inserted every 37 nautical miles. The carrier frequency technology made 36 speech circuits possible.

laying

In the summers of 1955 and 1956, most of the cables were installed by the British cable layer Monarch . The endpoints were in Gallanach Bay near Oban in Scotland and in Clarenville , Newfoundland. On the opening day, September 25, 1956, 707 conversations were put through. The capacity of the cable was soon increased to 48 channels by reducing the voice bandwidth . Three more voice channels were added in the 1960s.

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