Why haven satellites made submarine telephone cables obsolete?
While telegraph cables were invented well before space sciences came into vogue, new fibre optic technology is as high tech as satellite systems. Fibre optic cables transmit voice and data traffic with higher reliability and security at a cheaper rate than satellite. While a satellite call must travel 35,784 km, 22,235 miles or 19,322 nautical miles (source NASA) from the earth to the satellite and then another 22,235 miles back, a trans-pacific fibre optic call need only travel about 5000 miles point-to-point. At the speed of light this helps to eliminate the delays suffered during a satellite telephone call.
