Milestone-Proposal:TPC-1 System

Docket #:2013-25

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Is the achievement you are proposing more than 25 years old? Yes

Is the achievement you are proposing within IEEE’s fields of interest? (e.g. “the theory and practice of electrical, electronics, communications and computer engineering, as well as computer science, the allied branches of engineering and the related arts and sciences” – from the IEEE Constitution) Yes

Did the achievement provide a meaningful benefit for humanity? Yes

Was it of at least regional importance? Yes

Has an IEEE Organizational Unit agreed to pay for the milestone plaque(s)? Yes

Has an IEEE Organizational Unit agreed to arrange the dedication ceremony? Yes

Has the IEEE Section in which the milestone is located agreed to take responsibility for the plaque after it is dedicated? Yes

Has the owner of the site agreed to have it designated as an Electrical Engineering Milestone? Yes

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Year or range of years in which the achievement occurred:

1964

Title of the proposed milestone:

Transpacific Cable No.1 (TPC-1) System, 1964

Plaque citation summarizing the achievement and its significance:

At this site,the first Transpacific Undersea Coaxial Telephone cable linking Japan, Hawaii and the US Mainland was landed. This joint project between American Telephone and Telegraph, Hawaiian Telephone Company, and Kokusai Denshin Denwa was inaugurated on 19 June 1964 by President Lyndon B Johnson and Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda, as they exchanged a congratulatory telephone call on the completion of a bridge between Asia and America.

In what IEEE section(s) does it reside?

IEEE Tokyo Section

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) which have agreed to sponsor the Milestone:

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) paying for milestone plaque(s):

Unit: IEEE Tokyo Section
Senior Officer Name: Senior officer name masked to public

Unit: IEEE Hawaii Section
Senior Officer Name: Senior officer name masked to public

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) arranging the dedication ceremony:

Unit: IEEE Tokyo Section
Senior Officer Name: Senior officer name masked to public

Unit: IEEE Hawaii Section
Senior Officer Name: Senior officer name masked to public

IEEE section(s) monitoring the plaque(s):

IEEE Section: IEEE Tokyo Section
IEEE Section Chair name: Section chair name masked to public

IEEE Section: IEEE Hawaii Section
IEEE Section Chair name: Section chair name masked to public

Milestone proposer(s):

Proposer name: Proposer's name masked to public
Proposer email: Proposer's email masked to public

Please note: your email address and contact information will be masked on the website for privacy reasons. Only IEEE History Center Staff will be able to view the email address.

Street address(es) and GPS coordinates of the intended milestone plaque site(s):

[1] KDDI Corporation, Garden Air Tower, 3-10-10, Iidabashi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 102-8460 JAPAN

[2] Hawaiian Telcom, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

Describe briefly the intended site(s) of the milestone plaque(s). The intended site(s) must have a direct connection with the achievement (e.g. where developed, invented, tested, demonstrated, installed, or operated, etc.). A museum where a device or example of the technology is displayed, or the university where the inventor studied, are not, in themselves, sufficient connection for a milestone plaque.

Please give the address(es) of the plaque site(s) (GPS coordinates if you have them). Also please give the details of the mounting, i.e. on the outside of the building, in the ground floor entrance hall, on a plinth on the grounds, etc. If visitors to the plaque site will need to go through security, or make an appointment, please give the contact information visitors will need.

[1] The site in Japan is the corporate building of KDDI (the successor of KDD, Japan party of TPC-1 System).

[2] The site in Hawaii is the corporate building of Hawaiian Telcom (the successor of HTC, Hawaiian party of TPC-1 System).

Are the original buildings extant?

The building of "Ninomiya Cable Landign Station" still exist but is not in use now (as of January 2014), and will be removed in near future. Therefore, the plaque is to be placed at the building of KDDI Headquarter.

The original building in Hawaii no longer exists.

Details of the plaque mounting:

[1] The plaque is to be placed where the visitors can access.

[2] The plaque is to be placed where the visitors can access.

How is the site protected/secured, and in what ways is it accessible to the public?

[1] The plaque site is within KDDI Headquarter, and is under the propoer security control. The visitors can access with prior appointment to KDDI (International Network Department, +81 3 6678 0800).

[2] TBD

Who is the present owner of the site(s)?

[1] KDDI Corporation

[2] Hawaiian Telcom

A letter in English, or with English translation, from the site owner(s) giving permission to place IEEE milestone plaque on the property:

File:To be arranged

A letter or email from the appropriate Section Chair supporting the Milestone application:

File:To be arranged

What is the historical significance of the work (its technological, scientific, or social importance)?

"TPC-1 System" was the first submarine telephone cables connecting the North America and Asia with the length of longer than 10,000km in total by applying the state of the art technology "SD cable system", which was developed by the Bell Laboratory of AT&T. TPC-1 System started its operation on 19th June 1964 with the congratulatory speeches of the President Lyndon B Johnson of USA and the Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda of Japan as the important national project of USA and Japan. It has contributed to closer relationship and to the mutual development in culture and economy between USA and Japan. TPC-1 System also triggered the rapid development of the submarine telephone cable network in Eastern Asia, providing a big communication capacity between Eastern Asia and USA/Europe. "TPC-1 Systems" were composed of three segments; 1) TPC-1 connecting Japan with Hawaii via Guam, Midway and Wake, 2) HAW-1 and HAW-2 connecting Hawaii and the main land USA and 3) Guam-Philippine Cable, the branch of TPC-1. TPC-1 Systems were cross connected at Hawaii with COMPAC, the British Commonwealth cable linking Canada, New Zeeland and Australia. TPC-1 Systems and COMPAC formed the Pan Pacific coaxial submarine cable network. TPC-1 Systems were jointly constructed by AT&T, HTC and KDD and started its operation in June, 1964, and were completed in December, 1964　by joining of Guam-Philippine Cable. Since then, TPC-1 Systems were in operation more than a quarter century and will have 50 years anniversary in 2014. The quality of telephone circuit of the longest multi links through TPC-1 Systems, land cables in North American Continent and submarine cables in Atlantic Ocean was proven to satisfy the CCITT recommendation as the first time. The technology developed in SD cable system covers the dynamics of the cable in the sea, the machinery on board a cable ship and methodology of cable lay and repair, which became de facto standard of the cable lay and repair methodology. The technology developed in TPC-1 Systems has become the foundation of the construction and maintenance for the current fiber optic submarine cable used for international telecommunication today.

What obstacles (technical, political, geographic) needed to be overcome?

The extremely high reliability was necessary for the repeater especially for the vacuum tube in it, which amplifies the transmission signal in tandem. The requirement of high reliability was achieved by means of the quality control developed by Bell Laboratory and has been proved in long operation of TPC-1 Systems. The quality control methodology used in SD cable system was succeeded to current fiber optic submarine cable systems. TPC-1 was necessary to cross the Mariana trench and to be laid on complicated feature of the sea floor along the trenches. Scientists on ocean floor of USA and Japan jointly examined the hydrographic survey data obtained by Japanese Oceanography Service and determined the safe and stable cable route in the region. The knowledge established through coordination between the academic field and the business field has contributed to the planning of the following trans-ocean submarine cable projects.

What features set this work apart from similar achievements?

In order to satisfy the need for the stable telephone communication between Eastern Asia and USA/Europe in building a new world order after the second world war, USA and Japan agreed to construct TPC-1 Systems as the national project for both countries and AT&T, HTC and KDD signed the "TPC-1 Construction and Maintenance Agreement" in February 1962. After the completion of the construction, the telephone traffic through TPC-1 Systems grew more than 50 percent every year, which showed the big contribution of TPC-1 Systems to the social and economic activities between Asia and USA/Europe. The telecommunication development in quality and quantity introduced by TPC-1 Systems, together with the development in transportation, drastically enhanced the inter-continents activities in community exchange and import/export. This drastic increase showed the potential huge growth in telecommunication traffic between Eastern Asia and USA/Europe and accelerated the construction of the submarine cable networks in East Asia and South East Asia, which subsequently contributed in harmonizing Eastern Asia and USA/Europe. AT&T, HT and KDD enhanced coordination in implementation of TPC-1 System. For example, the considerably large part of the SD cable and some telecommunication facilities, such as channel banks, echo suppressor, international telephone exchange switch for TPC-1 System were developed and manufactured in Japan under the co-supervision of AT&T and KDD.

References to establish the dates, location, and importance of the achievement: Minimum of five (5), but as many as needed to support the milestone, such as patents, contemporary newspaper articles, journal articles, or citations to pages in scholarly books. At least one of the references must be from a scholarly book or journal article.

(1) Article on Japan Times (June, 20, 1964) (2) Article on New York Times (June 19, 1964) (3) Article on Japan Times (Feb. 16, 1962) (4) TPC-1 C&MA (5) "The SD Submarine Cable System", Bell System Technical Journal, July 1964 (6) "Submarine Cable Laying System", Bell Laboratories Record, March 1964

Supporting materials (supported formats: GIF, JPEG, PNG, PDF, DOC): All supporting materials must be in English, or if not in English, accompanied by an English translation. You must supply the texts or excerpts themselves, not just the references. For documents that are copyright-encumbered, or which you do not have rights to post, email the documents themselves to ieee-history@ieee.org. Please see the Milestone Program Guidelines for more information.

(1) TPC-1 Moive in Japanese

   http://www.kagakueizo.org/movie/industrial/78/

(2) The same Movie in English is available by DVD.