[comp.dcom.telecom] Transatlantic Computer Traffic via Satellite

roeber@cithe2.cithep.caltech.edu (Frederick Roeber) (11/11/90)

It has been mentioned that recently much transatlantic computer
traffic has been routed via satellite because of a broken undersea
cable.  I just called Washington from Switzerland and got a
`half-duplex' connection (pardon the computer term; I mean when one
person was speaking, the other direction was cut off.)  From the
delay, it was clearly a satellite link.  However, I also traced the
Internet link between Geneva and Pasadena, and the long delay I've
seen recently (that I figured was the transatlantic hop) has
disappeared!

Does anybody know what's going on?


Frederick G. M. Roeber | e-mail: roeber@caltech.edu or roeber@vxcern.cern.ch
r-mail: CERN/SL-CO, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland | telephone: +41 22 767 5373


[Moderator's Note: The message we got was that one of the repeaters in
the cable was out. A ship was on location to work on it. A private
message sent to me Saturday night said the repairs are apparently
finished and the cable is back in service.   PAT]