Commonwealth Pacific Cable System
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