Length of fibre-optic cable, by STC Submarine Systems
- Made:
- 1986 in Southampton
Length of fibre-optic cable, by STC Submarine Systems, from the UK-Belgium 5 cable laid by CS Alert in 1986
UK-Belgium 5 was a submarine communications cable linking the UK and Belgium. It was the first international undersea cable system to use optical fibres rather than coaxial cable. The cable was laid between 26 April and 6 May 1986 by CS Alert for a consortium that included British Telecom. The cable runs between Broadstairs in the UK and Ostend in Belgium, and has a total length of 122.6 kilometres (76.2 miles). The cable had 3 repeaters and 3 pairs of optic fibres, each operating at 280 Mbit/s giving a total capacity of 11,520 x 64kbit/s circuits. The cable from which this sample came was recovered to allow a pipeline to be buried across the cable’s position.
Details
- Category:
- Telecommunications
- Object Number:
- 2024-51
- Materials:
- copper, steel, nylon, polythene, polypropylene, glass fibre and bitumen
- Measurements:
-
overall: 85 mm 85 mm, 2 kg
- type:
- fibre-optic cable
- credit:
- Rob Struzyna
