History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications
from the first submarine cable of 1850 to the worldwide fiber optic network
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History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications |
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Cable Stamps |
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to Bill Glover for providing the stamp images and text for this page.
All material on this page is copyright © 2005 Bill Glover ASEAN CABLE Singapore 1978
10-75c (Common design)
ASEAN:- ASSOCIATION OF SOUTH EAST ASIAN NATIONS, comprises five countries, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. The laying of the ASEAN network was split into four sections. The first section laid was that from the Philippines to Singapore. Shore ends at Katong, Singapore and Currimao, Luzon, were laid by MV Cap Villano, hired by Standard Telephone and Cables Ltd., manufacturers of the cable. CS Cable Venture laid the 1507 nm main cable. The second section from Indonesia to Singapore was laid by Kuroshio Maru with Chosui Maru laying the shore ends. The main cable was 572 nm long. KDD Maru and Kuroshio Maru laid the 920 nm cable between Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand with Kaiko Maru 5 laying the shore ends. The final section from Thailand to the Philippines was laid by Kuroshio Maru. The cable carried 1380 circuits which were allocated on the basis of ownership shares in the whole project. See additional ASEAN covers on the Other Covers page
At a conference held in June 1961, in Kuala Lumpur, between the operators of COMPAC and representatives of Malaysia, a decision was taken to lay a cable to be known as SEACOM linking Singapore, Sabah, Hong Kong and Australia. Laying of the cable was split into two parts, SEACOM 1, Singapore - Sabah - Hong Kong. SEACOM 2, Hong Kong - Guam - Madang, Papua New Guinea - Australia. CS Mercury began laying the first part on 2 July 1964 from Jessleton, Sabah to Singapore, CS Recorder (3) had already laid the shore ends. CS Mercury laid 622 nm and 30 repeaters and CS Monarch (4), completed the link laying 243 nm of cable and 14 repeaters. CS Cable Enterprise laid the Singapore shore ends and then remained at Singapore on repair duties. The link from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur was by microwave. CS Monarch sailed to Jessleton, Sabah and laid 400 nm of cable and 18 repeaters of the Hong Kong cable. CS Mercury followed on and laid 700 nm of cable and 28 repeaters. This section opened for service on 31 March 1965. Before laying commenced on SEACOM 2, CS Mercury and CS Recorder (3) spent a number of weeks surveying the route to Australia because of the exceptional ocean depths. Parts of the cable were laid at depths of 4000 fathoms. CS Monarch then laid 800 nm and 33 repeaters of the Hong Kong - Guam cable with CS Mercury laying a further 1260 nm of cable and 51 repeaters. CS Monarch then commenced the Madang - Cairns section, laying 776 nm and 48 repeaters. CS Mercury completed it laying 840 nm of cable and 49 repeaters and then laid the first section of the Madang - Guam cable with CS Monarch finishing off, 1391 nm of cable and 83 repeaters were laid by the two ships. From Cairns a microwave link to Sydney completed the network. At Sydney SEACOM linked up with COMPAC and at Guam with TPC 1. The cable was manufactured by Standard Telephones and Cables Ltd., who produced 2410 nm, 68 repeaters and 198 internal repeater units, and Submarine Cables Ltd., who produced 4700 nm of cable and 88 repeaters plus 198 repeater housings. Capacity between Kuala Lumpur and Guam was 80 telephone circuits and between Guam and Sydney 160 circuits. Each telephone circuit could carry up to 22 telegraph or telex circuits. SEACOM was taken out of service in 1986. |
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Many additional stamps are shown on the pages linked from the Stamps Index page
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Last revised: 4 March, 2014 |
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