UK-Belgium 5 was a submarine communications cable linking the United Kingdom and Belgium. It was the first international undersea cable system to use optical fibres rather than coaxial cable. [1]

The cable was laid in 1986. It was owned by a consortium which included British Telecom. The cable was manufactured by Standard Telephones and Cables. It runs between Broadstairs in the UK and Ostend in Belgium, and has a total length of 122.6 kilometres (76.2 mi).

The cable had 3 repeaters and had 3 pairs of optic fibres, each operating at 280 Mbit/s giving a total capacity of 11,520 x 64 kbit/s circuits.[2]

UK-Belgium 5 was withdrawn from service in January 2005.[3]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "First Submarine Fiber Optic Cable", Optica (society), retrieved 28 January 2024
  2. ^ Shannon, Ray D (July 1986). "UK -Belgium No 5". British Telecommunications Engineering. 5 (2): 138. ISSN 0262-401X.
  3. ^ "History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications", Atlantic-Cable.com, retrieved 28 January 2024