- Email: [email protected]
Cyprus: A new centre for telecommunications
Reports
capital and other Middle Eastern cities sometimes entail a wait of six days. The island’s Fist satellite earth station, named Makarios, was commissioned in May 1980 (see Figure 1). It was built by ITT outside Nicosia, with 4.5 channels, expanded within a few months to 51; 28 to the UK, eight to A rapid expansion of telecommunications facilities on Cyprus in recent years is West Germany, seven to France, six to bringing the island to the fore as a focus for communications in the Middle East the USA and two to Canada. Five channels can also be used on demand region. Its strategic position in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, a communicatelevision transmission and tions infrastructure well in advance of that offered by most of the surrounding for reception, mainly on live events. Its countries, and fully developed ties with European and Arab countries, are orbital connection is an INTELSAT accelerating this already pronounced trend. IVA over the Atlantic Ocean, and a Keywords: Telecommunications; Economics; Cyprus link to the EUTELSAT system is scheduled to follow. That will give 24The impetus for present technical ready well-developed links with both hour direct connections with another developments, which include an ex- Western and Eastern Europe, and four countries, and indirect access to America, consolidated the others. pansion of a highly successful satellite North communications system and a new sub- country’s position as an intermediary Tenders were requested for a second marine cable to Greece, can be partly between the West and East. antenna just 14 months after the openattributed to events following the The Cyprus Telecommunications ing of the first, to provide an eastward Turkish invasion of the northern part Authority (CYTA), which lost one link over the Indian Ocean, again via of the island in 1974. The intemationthird of its telephone installations in the an INTELSAT satellite in geostationally recognized government in the invasion, has played a vital role in this. ary orbit. larger Greek sector, where the eco- It even claims that the facilities it offers The BBC has a particular interest in nomy was crippled by the loss of 70% are attracting businessmen from the the Cflmillion project. It has leased of gross output, chose to concentrate Lebanon and other poorly-equipped five of the 20 circuits to transmit its its efforts on recovery in the export neighbouring countries who are travelexternal services programmes to the sector. To do this they especially ling to the island primarily to make Middle East, for which it will pay tackled the markets offered by the contact with the wider world. Whereas Cf200000 annually. This virtually enflight from sures the scheme’s commercial viabiArab nations of North Africa and the it is simply a m-minute Beirut to Lamaca, international tele- lity, and will cover the CflOOOOOyearly Middle East. The improved communications which followed, on top of al- phone connections from the Lebanese maintenance costs and CflOOOOO depreciation. The four-way agreement (between the CYTA, the BBC, British Telecom and the INTELSAT Corporation) to take up a quarter of the new station’s capacity is a significant step. Associated Press has already moved its Middle East bureau from Beirut to Cyprus to make use of the improved facilities, and other press agencies are expected to follow. Listeners to the BBC in the region will be the main beneficiaries, according to the Corporation, when the second antenna starts operations in 1982. For a large section of the audience, the quality of their reception is presently limited by the circuits from the UK. The BBC’s Cyprus transmitter has had to rely on programmes picked up from HF transmitters in Britain.
Cyprus: a new centre for telecommunications
Figure 1. The CYTA satellite station, Makarios.
60
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
earth
POLICY March 1982
Reports
The new satellite link will considerably improve the quality and consistency of the programme signals. These will pass over normal analogue circuits from the BBC’s Bush House to the British Telecom ground station at Madley in Hertfordshire, and be beamed up to the satellite. They will then be retransmitted to the 10 metre dish at Makarios, converted back into analogue form and passed by microwaves to the transmitter station for broadcasting. Signals from INTELSAT can be received anywhere within its signal ‘footprint’, which extends from the UK to South Africa, Japan and Australia. The BBC is negotiating with telecommunications bodies in Oman and Singapore with the intention of using the Indian Ocean satellite to feed its other Middle and Far East transmitters.
Submarine cables A third submarine cable is currently being laid to Greece to complement the island’s two existing ones, which are being used to almost full capacity. The present two already provide links with Greece (Aphrodite, with 480 circuits) and the Lebanon (Adonis, with 240 circuits). The new cable, christened Apollon, will have a capacity of 1380 channels of 4 KHz bandwidth each. It is to be owned and operated jointly by CYTA and the Greek telecommunications body, OTE, on a fifty-fifty basis. The $42 million turnkey project is being installed by STC of the UK, and is expected to be commissioned in early 1982. Extension beyond Greece will also be feasible using the Apollon cable, with the acquisition of Inde-
feasible Rights of Use in the Artemis cable from Greece to France, also due to come into use at the same time. A tropospheric scattering radio system also links Cyprus with Greece, but of its 120 circuits, 42 are kept aside as a stand-by facility only. A UHF radio system connects the island with Israel, offering 48 channels.
International traffic Sixty-five countries are now available on International Subscriber Dialling (ISD) from Cyprus, which effectively means connection to more than 90% of the world’s 500 million telephones. In 1980, about 92% of international traffic was dialled direct, totalling 11.2 million minutes, compared with 966008 minutes connected through the operator. Operator calls, however, show a greater growth on 1979 levels than do ISD calls - 38.6% as against 12.9% in the former. The number of international telephone circuits increased in the year by 20%) from 339 to 408. International telex traffic grew by 15.4% in the numbers of calls sent in 1980, to 949OtKl. Measured in time, the growth was just 7.0%, to 2.6 million. Telegraph services were adversely affected by the growth of telex as a means of communication, international traffic grew by just 4%. An expansion of the island’s domestic internal new network is keeping pace with the new international connections. In 1980,630O new telephones were installed, bringing the total to 75 700. Extension of the main exchanges and the construction of new ones are inevitably involved in this work. Nicosia, the capital city divided by the United Nations cease-fire line, naturally
has the biggest network (54400 lines in 1980, growing to 6OooO in 1981). The growth in Cyprus’ booming second city and biggest port, Limassol, is even greater - by 7000 to about 27000 in the same period. Lamaca, which was the location chosen for the new airport after the Turkish invasion made the original at Nicosia unuseable, saw an increase of 50% to 9000. In contrast, exchanges at the Turkish-held towns of Famagusta, Kyrenia and Morphou, were unaltered in 1980. The island’s four-year rural development plan calls for the establishment of six new rural exchanges at Pelchori, Ormidhia, Mosphiloti, Ayios Nicolaos, Peyia and Statos-Ayios Photios. New cross-bar equipment will replace the existing apparatus at Dheftera, Kakopetria, Peristerona and Polis. The CYTA also provides local facilities for the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation, international voicecasts and telecasts for the media, radio communication with ships at sea, and services for the control of civil aviation, between the island’s main airport at Larnaca and Athens, Beirut, Tel Aviv, Cairo and Akrotiri. The authority’s 1980 operating revenue of (X14.68 million exhibited a 20% increase on the 1979 figure. Revenue growth was particularly concentrated in telephone and telex services. This resulted in a net surplus of Cf3.66 million, cf2.64 million up on 1979. Surpluses together with suppliers’ credit, provide the finance for developing the authority’s services. Kenneth D. MacTaggart TechnologyPolicy Unit University of Aston Birmingham, UK
Telecommunications Policy welcomes information on current research programmes, overviews of the aims and objectives of research organizations, and short informative articles on important issues, for publication in its ‘Reports’ section. Contributions should be sent to the Editor, Telecommunications Policy, Butterworth Scientific Ltd - .Joumals Division, PO Box 63, Westbury House, Bury Street, Guildford, Surrey GU2 5BH, UK.
lELECOMMUNICAllONS
POLICY March 1962
61
capital and other Middle Eastern cities sometimes entail a wait of six days. The island’s Fist satellite earth station, named Makarios, was commissioned in May 1980 (see Figure 1). It was built by ITT outside Nicosia, with 4.5 channels, expanded within a few months to 51; 28 to the UK, eight to A rapid expansion of telecommunications facilities on Cyprus in recent years is West Germany, seven to France, six to bringing the island to the fore as a focus for communications in the Middle East the USA and two to Canada. Five channels can also be used on demand region. Its strategic position in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, a communicatelevision transmission and tions infrastructure well in advance of that offered by most of the surrounding for reception, mainly on live events. Its countries, and fully developed ties with European and Arab countries, are orbital connection is an INTELSAT accelerating this already pronounced trend. IVA over the Atlantic Ocean, and a Keywords: Telecommunications; Economics; Cyprus link to the EUTELSAT system is scheduled to follow. That will give 24The impetus for present technical ready well-developed links with both hour direct connections with another developments, which include an ex- Western and Eastern Europe, and four countries, and indirect access to America, consolidated the others. pansion of a highly successful satellite North communications system and a new sub- country’s position as an intermediary Tenders were requested for a second marine cable to Greece, can be partly between the West and East. antenna just 14 months after the openattributed to events following the The Cyprus Telecommunications ing of the first, to provide an eastward Turkish invasion of the northern part Authority (CYTA), which lost one link over the Indian Ocean, again via of the island in 1974. The intemationthird of its telephone installations in the an INTELSAT satellite in geostationally recognized government in the invasion, has played a vital role in this. ary orbit. larger Greek sector, where the eco- It even claims that the facilities it offers The BBC has a particular interest in nomy was crippled by the loss of 70% are attracting businessmen from the the Cflmillion project. It has leased of gross output, chose to concentrate Lebanon and other poorly-equipped five of the 20 circuits to transmit its its efforts on recovery in the export neighbouring countries who are travelexternal services programmes to the sector. To do this they especially ling to the island primarily to make Middle East, for which it will pay tackled the markets offered by the contact with the wider world. Whereas Cf200000 annually. This virtually enflight from sures the scheme’s commercial viabiArab nations of North Africa and the it is simply a m-minute Beirut to Lamaca, international tele- lity, and will cover the CflOOOOOyearly Middle East. The improved communications which followed, on top of al- phone connections from the Lebanese maintenance costs and CflOOOOO depreciation. The four-way agreement (between the CYTA, the BBC, British Telecom and the INTELSAT Corporation) to take up a quarter of the new station’s capacity is a significant step. Associated Press has already moved its Middle East bureau from Beirut to Cyprus to make use of the improved facilities, and other press agencies are expected to follow. Listeners to the BBC in the region will be the main beneficiaries, according to the Corporation, when the second antenna starts operations in 1982. For a large section of the audience, the quality of their reception is presently limited by the circuits from the UK. The BBC’s Cyprus transmitter has had to rely on programmes picked up from HF transmitters in Britain.
Cyprus: a new centre for telecommunications
Figure 1. The CYTA satellite station, Makarios.
60
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
earth
POLICY March 1982
Reports
The new satellite link will considerably improve the quality and consistency of the programme signals. These will pass over normal analogue circuits from the BBC’s Bush House to the British Telecom ground station at Madley in Hertfordshire, and be beamed up to the satellite. They will then be retransmitted to the 10 metre dish at Makarios, converted back into analogue form and passed by microwaves to the transmitter station for broadcasting. Signals from INTELSAT can be received anywhere within its signal ‘footprint’, which extends from the UK to South Africa, Japan and Australia. The BBC is negotiating with telecommunications bodies in Oman and Singapore with the intention of using the Indian Ocean satellite to feed its other Middle and Far East transmitters.
Submarine cables A third submarine cable is currently being laid to Greece to complement the island’s two existing ones, which are being used to almost full capacity. The present two already provide links with Greece (Aphrodite, with 480 circuits) and the Lebanon (Adonis, with 240 circuits). The new cable, christened Apollon, will have a capacity of 1380 channels of 4 KHz bandwidth each. It is to be owned and operated jointly by CYTA and the Greek telecommunications body, OTE, on a fifty-fifty basis. The $42 million turnkey project is being installed by STC of the UK, and is expected to be commissioned in early 1982. Extension beyond Greece will also be feasible using the Apollon cable, with the acquisition of Inde-
feasible Rights of Use in the Artemis cable from Greece to France, also due to come into use at the same time. A tropospheric scattering radio system also links Cyprus with Greece, but of its 120 circuits, 42 are kept aside as a stand-by facility only. A UHF radio system connects the island with Israel, offering 48 channels.
International traffic Sixty-five countries are now available on International Subscriber Dialling (ISD) from Cyprus, which effectively means connection to more than 90% of the world’s 500 million telephones. In 1980, about 92% of international traffic was dialled direct, totalling 11.2 million minutes, compared with 966008 minutes connected through the operator. Operator calls, however, show a greater growth on 1979 levels than do ISD calls - 38.6% as against 12.9% in the former. The number of international telephone circuits increased in the year by 20%) from 339 to 408. International telex traffic grew by 15.4% in the numbers of calls sent in 1980, to 949OtKl. Measured in time, the growth was just 7.0%, to 2.6 million. Telegraph services were adversely affected by the growth of telex as a means of communication, international traffic grew by just 4%. An expansion of the island’s domestic internal new network is keeping pace with the new international connections. In 1980,630O new telephones were installed, bringing the total to 75 700. Extension of the main exchanges and the construction of new ones are inevitably involved in this work. Nicosia, the capital city divided by the United Nations cease-fire line, naturally
has the biggest network (54400 lines in 1980, growing to 6OooO in 1981). The growth in Cyprus’ booming second city and biggest port, Limassol, is even greater - by 7000 to about 27000 in the same period. Lamaca, which was the location chosen for the new airport after the Turkish invasion made the original at Nicosia unuseable, saw an increase of 50% to 9000. In contrast, exchanges at the Turkish-held towns of Famagusta, Kyrenia and Morphou, were unaltered in 1980. The island’s four-year rural development plan calls for the establishment of six new rural exchanges at Pelchori, Ormidhia, Mosphiloti, Ayios Nicolaos, Peyia and Statos-Ayios Photios. New cross-bar equipment will replace the existing apparatus at Dheftera, Kakopetria, Peristerona and Polis. The CYTA also provides local facilities for the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation, international voicecasts and telecasts for the media, radio communication with ships at sea, and services for the control of civil aviation, between the island’s main airport at Larnaca and Athens, Beirut, Tel Aviv, Cairo and Akrotiri. The authority’s 1980 operating revenue of (X14.68 million exhibited a 20% increase on the 1979 figure. Revenue growth was particularly concentrated in telephone and telex services. This resulted in a net surplus of Cf3.66 million, cf2.64 million up on 1979. Surpluses together with suppliers’ credit, provide the finance for developing the authority’s services. Kenneth D. MacTaggart TechnologyPolicy Unit University of Aston Birmingham, UK
Telecommunications Policy welcomes information on current research programmes, overviews of the aims and objectives of research organizations, and short informative articles on important issues, for publication in its ‘Reports’ section. Contributions should be sent to the Editor, Telecommunications Policy, Butterworth Scientific Ltd - .Joumals Division, PO Box 63, Westbury House, Bury Street, Guildford, Surrey GU2 5BH, UK.
lELECOMMUNICAllONS
POLICY March 1962
61