The first cable connection between SA and Europe is launched

On 31 July 1879, the first cable connection between South Africa and Europe, via Aden, was launched.  It was laid by the British electrical engineer Charles Tilston Bright as part of his project to link the British Empire with growing telecommunications technologies. Amid the 1850s Bright had been the chief engineer responsible for laying the first undersea cable between Europe and North America which was completed in 1858. During the 1870s, technology improved considerably and Bright turned his attention to the British Empire, laying cables first from England to Portugal, then to Gibraltar, and across the Mediterranean to Suez. Soon Bright was in a contest with Werner von Siemens to reach India. While Siemens chose an overland route, Bright opted for a sea route. Though Siemens eventually won, Bright's network was extended from South Africa to India, Singapore and Australia. In 1890 rates from the United Kingdom to South Africa were 8s 11d per word (to Australia 9s 6d and New Zealand 10s 6d). References: iscpc.org(2000)‘Narrative History of Submarine Cables’ [online] Available atwww.iscpc.org [Accessed: 19 July 2011] Telkom,‘1500 – 1899’ [online] Available at www.telkom.co.za [Accessed: 28 July 2011] Wallis F. (2000). Nuusdagboek: feite en fratse oor 1000 jaar, Kaapstad: Human & Rousseau.