By 1996, not only transmission over 11 600 km at a bit rate of 5 Gbit/s had been demonstrated by using actual submarine cables, but commercial transatlantic and transpacific cable systems also became available. Since then, a large number of submarine lightwave systems have. NatWest Group History 100 object 20: sample piece of optical fibre cable, 1996. When it was made in the mid-1990s, this optical fibre cable had enough capacity to convey 500,000 simultaneous telephone calls. It was capable of carrying voice, text, music, TV pictures and computer data. In short, it. GENEVA, Jan 14 1996 (IPS) - A coordinating committee for a project that will surround the African continent with a fibre optic cable to improve links among countries, and between the continent and the outside world, is to be convened here at the end of the month, officials said. It was constructed in 1988 by a consortium of companies led by AT&T Corporation, France. This submarine cable line is designed to have a capacity of 2800 MW on one bipo-lar circuit of 500 kV DC with return conductor, requiring a cable system with a current capacity of 2800 A per line --the greatest submarine DC cable in the world. The cable was developed jointly by Kansai Electric. Optical fiber communication started to become practical use in 1970, when an optical fiber with a transmission loss of 20 dB/km and a laser diode continuously emitting at room temperature appeared. Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd.