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| 100 years of telecommunications |
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International telecommunications arrived in Ascension Island in 1899 when the Eastern Telegraph Company, a forebear of Cable & Wireless, laid the first submarine telegraph cable into the island as part of the cable chain linking South Africa, St Helena, Ascension, Cape Verde and on to UK. Later, cables laid by the E. T. C., and the Western Telegraph Company, connected South America and West Africa to Europe via Ascension.
Since then telecommunications world-wide have advanced way beyond the very wildest dreams of those early Victorian entrepreneurs who had faith in their visions. During this time Ascension Island has witnessed virtually every new development in telecommunications: HF radio, international broadcasting, co-axial submarine cable, satellite earth stations, data transmission, fibre optics, and the internet.
During most of these developments Ascension Island has played an important role, and can claim to have been at the forefront of the evolution of telecommunications during the 20th century.
Now 100 years later, although the Island of Ascension is virtually unchanged, the technology is very much of the new millennium.
 The early history of Ascension Island
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