Regulation, innovation and market structure in International Telecommunications: The case of the 1956 TAT1 submarine cable

This article sets out to demonstrate how regulation, markets and technology can be intertwined. It argues that the introduction of technology in a regulated market, such as that of international telecommunications, must be seen in terms of its impact on economic and political alliances in that regulatory market. It presents a case study of the first transatlantic telephone cable, TAT1 – a joint project between the US company, American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T), the British Post Office (GPO) and Canada's Overseas Telephone Corporation – and a coaxial cable proposed by another US company, International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT). Both cables became part of a British attempt to alter existing British and US domestic regulation of international telegraph transmission.