Girdle round the earth

Abstract Puck, in a Shakespearean comedy set in Athens, boasted: ‘I'll put a girdle round the earth in forty minutes’. His claim was never realised, but today—thanks to submarine cable technology—the human voice can make this long journey in a tenth of a second. This article reviews the present state of submarine cable technology; its relationship to communication by satellite; and the implications of optical fibre systems.