In 1866, a transatlantic cable laid by the steamer Great Eastern established reliable communication by telegraph between the United States and England.

CNN: Monday,

"There was a submarine cable laid between Singapore and India which probably had quite an effect, and export processing zones were redesignated so there would have been some industrial investment due to tax breaks, " he said.

BBC: India sees jump in foreign investment

Campaign group A Human Right, which is supported by the UN, has called on the Department for International Development to contribute a substantial amount to the engineering costs of connecting the island to the South Atlantic Express, a new superfast fibre optic cable being laid by South African firm eFive.

BBC: Technology

Its listed subsidiary Globo Cabo, Brazil's largest cable TV provider, has laid 15, 000 miles of coaxial cable past almost 5 million homes.

FORBES: Brazil's TV Titans

But you are also getting a call option on the possibility that Viacom will sell a lot of premium services to its cable subscribers, using fiber-optic cable it has already laid in the ground.

FORBES: Consider Your Options

Some cable connections have already been laid.

FORBES: A fiber niche is nice

In 1858, a telegraphed message from Britain's Queen Victoria to President Buchanan was transmitted over the recently laid trans-Atlantic cable.

CNN: Friday,

Global Crossing founder Gary Winnick, laid underwater fiber optic cable network across the Atlantic Ocean and became a billionaire in 1.5 years.

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It has moved fastest in Mumbai, where it has laid 150 km of fibre-optic cable and is now offering speedy Internet access to the first of its 1.9m customers in the city.

ECONOMIST: The wiring of India

But fortunately for the cable companies, they have the networks of wires they laid starting in the 1970s.

FORBES: Cable Companies Dish Data