COMPAC, the Commonwealth Pacific Cable System, was an undersea telephone cable system connecting Canada with New Zealand and Australia. It was completed by closing the last gap in Honolulu Harbor, Hawaii, at 6:25 a.m. B.S.T. on October 10, 1963. Public service of the cable commenced early in December 1963.
The system cost a total of $100 million and spanned 14,000 miles, from Oban in Scotland, via a microwave link across Canada, then on to Hawaii, Suva (Fiji), Auckland (New Zealand), and Sydney (Australia). Three cable ships-CS Mercury, CS Retriever, and HMTS Monarch-did the job. The link contains 11,000 miles of telephone cable, which, at the time, provided 80 two-way speech channels or 1,760 teleprinter circuits. In addition, the cable carries telegraph traffic, leased circuits for airlines, shipping companies and other commercial transmission.