PTAT-1 was the first privately financed

transatlantic Transatlantic, Trans-Atlantic or TransAtlantic may refer to: Film * Transatlantic Pictures, a film production company from 1948 to 1950 * Transatlantic Enterprises, an American production company in the late 1970s * ''Transatlantic'' (1931 film) ...

fiber optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...

telecommunications cable. Completed in 1989 at a cost of US$600 million and maintained by Cable & Wireless (C&W) and Sprint/Private TransAtlantic Telecommunication Systems, Inc. (PSI, Inc.), it connected

Manasquan, New Jersey Manasquan (, ) is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in southern Monmouth County, New Jersey, Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, on the Jersey Shore. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 5,938, an increa ...

, United States, with Devonshire, Bermuda, and

Ballinspittle Ballinspittle () is a village in County Cork, Ireland. It is in the Barony (Ireland), barony of Courceys and lies about southwest of Kinsale, on the R600 road (Ireland), R600 road. It is near Garrylucas and Garrettstown Blue Flag beach, Blue Fl ...

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

, terminating at Brean,

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, United Kingdom, for a distance of . PTAT-1 is notable for breaking the international

telecommunication Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic Competition (economics), competition to produce ...

held by

AT&T Corporation AT&T Corporation, an abbreviation for its former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, was an American telecommunications company that provided voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to busi ...

and

British Telecom BT Group plc (formerly British Telecom) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-li ...

(BT) for telecommunications between the US and UK, and setting off the mass production of fiber optic systems that now circle the world. PTAT-1 was built by a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

of a small private US company, Private TransAtlantic Telecommunication Systems, Inc. (PSI, Inc., founded as Tel-Optik in 1984) and

Cable & Wireless plc Cable & Wireless plc was a British telecommunications company. In the mid-1980s, it became the first company in the UK to offer an alternative telephone service to BT Group, British Telecom (via subsidiary Mercury Communications). The company l ...

of the UK. The submarine cable system and line terminal equipment were provided by

Standard Telephones and Cables Standard Telephones and Cables Ltd (later STC public limited company, plc) was a British manufacturer of telephone, telegraph, radio, telecommunications, and related equipment. During its history, STC invented and developed several groundbreakin ...

(ST

and alarm and control system management by

International Computers Limited International Computers Limited (ICL) was a British computer hardware, computer software and computer services company that operated from 1968 until 2002. It was formed through a merger of International Computers and Tabulators (ICT), English Ele ...

(ICL). The US shore end was built by Lightwave Spectrum. On August 15th, 1989, US Sprint Corp. acquired 100% of PSI, Inc., and thereby acquired 50% interest in PTAT-1. The UK to US section of the cable was shutdown just after 02:00 hours on 8 February 2004, as it was no longer considered financially viable by Cable & Wireless. Competitors to the cable had dropped their prices drastically after they re-emerged from

Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, w ...

with little or no debts to service, something C&W was unable to compete with. This cable provided intelligent

repeaters ''Repeaters'' is a 2010 Canadian thriller film directed by Carl Bessai, written by Arne Olsen, and starring Dustin Milligan, Amanda Crew, and Richard de Klerk as young drug addicts who find themselves stuck in a time loop. Plot Kyle, Sonia, and ...

that monitored and reported bit errors when queried by a base station. It included three fiber pairs, supporting two active channels. Each repeater had a base-station-controlled switch that could direct traffic between two fiber pairs, allowing flexible connections and a backup path if needed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ptat-1 Transatlantic communications cables Infrastructure completed in 1989 United Kingdom–United States relations Ireland–United Kingdom relations Ireland–United States relations 1989 establishments in New Jersey 1989 establishments in Bermuda 1989 establishments in Ireland 1989 establishments in England