Editors note - this entry is an extract from "History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications from the first submarine cable of 1850 to the worldwide fiber optic network" - The Evolution of Cable & Wireless, by Bill Glover. The full excellent exposition is accessible here

THE EASTERN & ASSOCIATED TELEGRAPH COMPANIES

In 1902 when the new group came into being it left the Eastern Telegraph Company (ETC) offices at 66 Old Broad Street and moved into new offices at Electra House, 84 Moorgate, London EC2. From this address it acquired the name of the 'Electra House Group'. This was both the administrative centre and also the main telegraph station linked to Porthcurno by landlines leased from the GPO. It was also the year that the Pacific Cable came into operation, the first time that the Eastern group had had competition within the British Empire. Other than that not much else changed in the running of the various companies which made up the group, they still operated under their original names.

A year previously Marconi had transmitted his first signal across the Atlantic from Poldhu, Cornwall to Signal Hill, St. Johns, Newfoundland. While Marconi was carrying out his experiments at Poldhu the ETC set up a listening station just above Porthcurno, close to the site of the present day Minack Theatre, to find out what Marconi was up to and whether it posed a threat to their cable business. They concluded that it would not. At the time this was a true assessment but things were to change and the E&A were not ready for it when it came.

The decision to go ahead with the Pacific cable (See Pacific Cables 1902-26) brought about price reductions by the Eastern group and many said that that was a good enough reason for laying the cable. When the Pacific service opened on 9 December 1902 the rate to Canada from Australia was 2s-4d per word against the Eastern groups 3s-0d. Prior to a number of reductions made by the E&A the rate had been 4s-9d. Another advantage of the Pacific cable was that it took an hour to transmit a telegram from Australia to England whereas the E&A route took almost a day.

Apart from this one minor inconvenience the E&A carried on as normal, the first World War helped to boost its profits and its shareholders continued to receive satisfying dividends. Even the GPO Imperial cables across the Atlantic (See GPO Cables) didn't cause them any problems.

On the 50th anniversary of the group, in 1922, a commemoration was held in London, and the souvenir book included maps of the cable system in 1872 and 1922.

In 1925 a method of regenerating submarine telegraph signals automatically came into use which led to large scale redundancies amongst operators at the various relay stations throughout the network. This enabled the company to reduce costs. The benefit was shortlived.

When the short wave 'Beam' system developed by Marconi, and operated by the GPO, came into service during 1926-7 the E&A found itself with serious problems. Within six months of the service, known as Empiradio, opening it took away 65% of the Eastern and Eastern Extension social traffic. They were hit where it hurt most, in their profits. They were not the only ones to suffer; the Pacific cable also lost a considerable amount of traffic, a case of a government owned cable system losing business to a government owned wireless telegraph system.

Consequently at the end of 1927, the Chairman of the group, Sir John Denison Pender, approached the Government of the day to help them. The alternative was to liquidate the group and pay out the shareholders. Negotiations took place between the cable companies, Marconi's company and the Government. The outcome was a merger of the two. On 8 April 1929 the new operating company

Imperial & International Communications Ltd. and the holding company Cables & Wireless Ltd., came into being.

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