British and transatlantic cables and Eastern Telegraph Company (1852–1901)
The origins of Cable and Wireless Communications begin in 1852 when John Pender, a Manchester cotton merchant, joined other businessmen as director of the English and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company. This company ran a specific point to point telegraph cable service between London and Dublin, but Pender soon began founding numerous other telegraphic cable companies to run similar point to point, national and international telegraph services. Over time, Pender amalgamated these into the single company that would form the basis for Cable and Wireless Communications.[10]
Because of the early development of point to point telegraph services, Cable and Wireless's origins embrace over 50 early telegraph, radio and telecommunications companies, many of them founded by Pender.
Pender was a financier of the Great Eastern Ship which laid the first successful transatlantic telegraph cable in 1866, beginning a new era of international telegraph communications.[11]
In 1869, Pender founded the Falmouth, Gibraltar and Malta Cable Company and the British Indian Submarine Telegraph Company, which connected the Anglo-Mediterranean cable (linking Malta to Alexandria using a cable manufactured by one of Pender's companies) to Britain and India, respectively. The London to Bombay telegraph line was completed in 1870. The London to Bombay cable was the first to land at Porthcurno in Cornwall, a location which became the company's global hub and is now home to its archive and a telegraph museum.[12]
In 1872 the three companies were merged with the Marseilles, Algiers and Malta Telegraph Company to form the Eastern Telegraph Company, with Pender as chairman.[13]
The Eastern Telegraph Company steadily took over a number of companies founded to connect the West Indies and South America, leading to a name change to The Eastern and Associated Telegraph Companies.[14]
Rise of wireless and transition to C&W Ltd (1901–1945)
From 1900 the near-monopoly on international communications enjoyed by the cable companies came under threat from the development of wireless radio technology. Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company gradually developed a chain of ships using short-wave radio communications which could commercially compete with undersea cables. In 1924 Marconi succeeded in telephoning Australia using short wave radio and in the same year was given a contract by the British Post Office to set up circuits with Canada, Australia, South Africa and India (called the Post Office beam wireless service).
The 1928 Imperial Wireless & Cable Conference was convened to establish the best way to manage these two technologies and protect British interests. This led to a decision to merge the communications methods of the British Empire into one operating company, initially known as the Imperial and International Communications Ltd, and changed to Cable and Wireless Limited in 1934.[15][16] In 1936, Sir Edward Wilshaw was named chairman of the company.[17]
Nationalisation and privatisation era (1945–1999)
Following the Labour Party's victory in the 1945 general election, the British government announced its intention to nationalise Cable and Wireless, which was carried out in 1947.[15] The company continued to own assets and operate telecommunication services outside the UK, but all assets in the UK were integrated with those of the Post Office, which operated the UK's domestic telecommunications monopoly.[18]
In 1979 the Conservative Party government led by Margaret Thatcher began privatising the nationalised industries. Cable & Wireless was its first privatisation, with the sale of 49% in November 1981 (the remaining 51% was sold in two tranches in 1983 and 1985).[19]
Part of the privatisation included the granting of a licence for a UK telecommunications network, Mercury Communications Ltd, as a rival to British Telecom. It was established as a subsidiary of Cable & Wireless.[20]
International expansion of C&W (1981–2006)
During this period Cable & Wireless entered several markets which remain important parts of the Cable & Wireless Communications Group. In 1997, Cable & Wireless bought a 50% share of the Panamanian INTEL (Instituto Nacional de Telecomunicaciones).[25] After the deal, the company was called Cable & Wireless Panama. In 2004, the group purchased a controlling stake in Monaco Telecom from Vivendi Universal.
Transition to a demerger (2006–2010)
In 2006, group chairman Sir Richard Lapthorne made the decision to split the business into two divisions: 'Cable & Wireless International' – which managed the group's telecommunications companies in various countries; and 'Cable & Wireless Europe, Asia and US' – focused on the enterprise market with a strong presence in the UK. In November 2009, the Cable and Wireless plc board announced its intention to demerge.[26]
Pan-America focus (2010 to date)
The companies demerged on March 26, 2010 into Cable & Wireless Communications (formerly Cable & Wireless International) and Cable & Wireless Worldwide (formerly Cable & Wireless Europe, Asia and US).[27] Cable & Wireless Worldwide was subsequently purchased by Vodafone on July 27, 2012.[28]
Cable & Wireless Communications in 2010 had a global portfolio of telecoms operators in small and medium-sized markets. The company's board determined that it would be difficult to generate the economies of scale needed in the telecoms industry from such a diverse portfolio and so determined to focus the business in the Pan-America region where it owns a number of businesses in the Caribbean and Panama.
Between 2010 and 2013 the company divested a number of businesses including in Bermuda,[29] the Channel Islands and Isle of Man, Maldives, South Atlantic[30] and Macau.[31]
