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UK-Belgium 5 was a submarine communications cable linking the United Kingdom and Belgium. It was the first international undersea cable system to use optical fibres rather than coaxial cable.

The cable was laid in 1986. It was owned by a consortium which included British Telecom. The cable was manufactured by Standard Telephones and Cables. It runs between Broadstairs in the UK and Ostend in Belgium, and has a total length of 122.6 kilometres (76.2 mi).

The cable had 3 repeaters and had 3 pairs of optic fibres, each operating at 280 Mbit/s giving a total capacity of 11,520 x 64 kbit/s circuits.

UK-Belgium 5 was withdrawn from service in January 2005.

See also

• List of international submarine communications cables

References

1. "First Submarine Fiber Optic Cable", Optica (society), retrieved 28 January 2024
2. Shannon, Ray D (July 1986). "UK -Belgium No 5". British Telecommunications Engineering. 5 (2): 138. ISSN 0262-401X.
3. "History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications", Atlantic-Cable.com, retrieved 28 January 2024

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