Undersea cable that made global internet possible is being pulled from ocean

TAT-8, the cable that launched the fibre-optic era, is heading for recycling.

Crews are pulling the historic TAT-8—the first fibre-optic cable laid across an ocean—from the Atlantic seabed. It had lain dormant for more than two decades.

The cable will be recycled in South Africa.

TAT-8 (Trans Atlantic Telephone 8) stretched around 6,000 kilometres between the United States, the United Kingdom, and France.

The cable marked humanity’s leap into the fibre-optic age as it carried its first traffic on December 14, 1998.

Experts are replacing the cable due to a crackly voice with pulses of light that could carry 280 million bits per second.

This cable is being replaced due to a crackly voice with pulses of light that could carry 280 million bits per second.

AT&T, British Telecom, and France Telecom built the cable that reached within just 18 months.

Subsea Environmental Services, one of three companies worldwide specializing in cable recovery and recycling, is carrying out the repair.

With the use of its diesel-electric ship, the MV Maasvliet, the company started its operations last year. Already by August, the team had managed to bring 1,012 kilometers of cable to the Portuguese port of Leixoes.

Mertech Marine in South Africa will now process the cable. They will convert it into steel, copper, and two types of polyethylene. The high-quality copper is in strong demand as the International Energy Agency forecasts shortages in the coming decade.