Transatlantic Telephone Cable System - Planning and Over-All Performance

The transatlantic telephone cable system was planned primarily to connect London to New York and London to Montreal, and thus serve as an interconnection between continent-wide networks on the two sides of the Atlantic. Thus, the system has to be capable of serving as a link in wire circuits as long as 10,000 miles, connecting telephone instruments supplied by various administrations and used by peoples of many nations. This role as an intercontinental link has, therefore, been a controlling consideration in setting the basic objectives for the system. The end sections of the system utilize facilities which are integral parts of the internal networks of the United States, Great Britain and Canada, but the essential new connecting links, extending between Oban, Scotland, and the United States-Canada border, and forming the greater part of the system, were built under an Agreement between the joint owners -- the American Telephone and Telegraph Company and its subsidiary the Eastern Telephone and Telegraph Company (operating in Canada), the British Post Office, and the Canadian Overseas * Bell Telephone Laboratories, Telecommunication Corporation. f British Post Office, 7