It is a common misconception that undersea or submarine cable communication has been superseded by communication by satellite. In fact, over 95 per cent of international internet, telephone and data traffic is still accounted for by undersea cables, which are cheaper and more reliable than satellites.
Undersea cable communication was triggered by the development of commercial electrical telegraphy. The first such telegraph was invented by William Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone and was used on railways in Britain from the late 1830s.
The successful introduction of telegraphy gave rise to the ambition to build undersea cables to transmit messages. An