installed their own cable systems when these were on a small enough scale - the Nordic countries are a good example of this.
Traditionally the “supply” industry has installed cable for the telecoms “carriers”. These were the national PTTs and quasi-PTTs (such as AT&T, BT, MCI and Sprint). It has been standard for cable systems, especially the largest ones, to be planned, financed and operated by consortia of carriers, which often had as many as 20-30 members, who participated in the investment in a well-defined way, depending on their foreseen requirement for capacity. The traditional time span between initial planning and a major cable system being ready for service was some four years, and cables are engineered for a 25-year operational lifetime.
However, the last two years have seen major transformations in both the telecoms and submarine cable industries, driven by an increasing emphasis on private rather than public investment, and much greater competition. Part of the reason for the changes comes from the exploding requirement for Internet bandwidth, driven both by a dramatic increase in the number of Internet users, and by the increase in each individual's need for bandwidth, as more video and audio material becomes available. Other pressures are regulatory, both due to the telecoms liberalisation which is taking place in the European Union (where the date of 1 January 1998 was a very important milestone) and by the more general agreement on telecoms services which has been made in the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
In the telecoms industry Worldcom has emerged as a major player, and in the business of cable ownership, Project Oxygen and Global Crossing seem to be evolving into truly world-wide and investor-funded cable networks, or "carrier's carriers".