Humble beginnings
Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2025 6:16 am
The history of voice termination mirrors to a large extent the history of global transportation, spreading out across the globe like a web. As people travelled further and faster, so a need arose for them to be able to communicate with greater ease and speed than that allowed by postal services and the telegraph. Where once there were only one or two routes to different places, with passage usually expensive and heavily controlled, now we are confronted by an almost overwhelming plethora of options, with little central regulation and great bargains to be had, if you know the right place to look.
In the early days, poland telegram telephone communications between countries were expensive, limited and heavily controlled by governments of the time. A prime example of this was the single transatlantic telegraph cable that connected Europe with the United States at the time. As the United Kingdom was the place where the cable entered the sea, all communications were routed through London, giving the British Government the power to monitor everything that went through it. This proved particularly useful during the second world war when the UK was able to cut off direct communications between German powers and the USA.
It wasn’t until 1956 that the first telephone cable was successfully laid across the Atlantic, allowing voice to voice communication for the first time. TAT1 as it was known, could carry up to 35 calls at the same time. A call cost £9 for three minutes, over £280 today. More and more cables were laid overtime and as the internet grew, copper gave way to fibre optic. These are still being laid today, with the most recent announced being SACS, which will connect Brazil with Angola. However, it’s no longer just national governments making the immense investment in undersea cables.
Rise of the private sector
Since around the turn of the millennium, private companies have begun laying their own cables as well. This was started by telecoms companies such as Vodaphone, but today tech companies including Microsoft and Facebook are investing in their own cable – MAREA is a 6600km cable that connects Virginia to Bilbao. Scheduled to go live in early 2018, it will have a speed of 160 terabits a second, the equivalent of streaming 70 million HD videos at once through a tube the size of a garden hose.
As private companies began to take control of these new networks the cost of call termination continued to be high. Calls had to be routed between any number of providers to reach their destinations, and each would take a cut from the initial operator. Up until the 1970s, international calls still had to be manually connected by switchboard operators. Then the Internet arrived.
In the early days, poland telegram telephone communications between countries were expensive, limited and heavily controlled by governments of the time. A prime example of this was the single transatlantic telegraph cable that connected Europe with the United States at the time. As the United Kingdom was the place where the cable entered the sea, all communications were routed through London, giving the British Government the power to monitor everything that went through it. This proved particularly useful during the second world war when the UK was able to cut off direct communications between German powers and the USA.
It wasn’t until 1956 that the first telephone cable was successfully laid across the Atlantic, allowing voice to voice communication for the first time. TAT1 as it was known, could carry up to 35 calls at the same time. A call cost £9 for three minutes, over £280 today. More and more cables were laid overtime and as the internet grew, copper gave way to fibre optic. These are still being laid today, with the most recent announced being SACS, which will connect Brazil with Angola. However, it’s no longer just national governments making the immense investment in undersea cables.
Rise of the private sector
Since around the turn of the millennium, private companies have begun laying their own cables as well. This was started by telecoms companies such as Vodaphone, but today tech companies including Microsoft and Facebook are investing in their own cable – MAREA is a 6600km cable that connects Virginia to Bilbao. Scheduled to go live in early 2018, it will have a speed of 160 terabits a second, the equivalent of streaming 70 million HD videos at once through a tube the size of a garden hose.
As private companies began to take control of these new networks the cost of call termination continued to be high. Calls had to be routed between any number of providers to reach their destinations, and each would take a cut from the initial operator. Up until the 1970s, international calls still had to be manually connected by switchboard operators. Then the Internet arrived.