A groundbreaking piece of internet history is being removed from the ocean floor more than three decades after it transformed global communications. TAT-8, the first fiber-optic cable ever laid across the Atlantic Ocean, is now being hauled up near Portugal after sitting unused beneath the sea for over 20 years.
The recovery effort is being led by Subsea Environmental Services, which is dismantling the historic cable that first entered service in December 1988 and was retired in 2002 due to a costly fault, according to WIRED. Built by AT&T, British Telecom, and France Telecom, TAT-8 marked a turning point by transmitting data via optical fiber rather than traditional copper lines.
Although it was the eighth transatlantic cable system, it was the first to rely on fiber optics, and its impact was immediate. The cable’s capacity was fully exhausted within just 18 months of launch, validating fiber technology as the future of global communications. At its debut, science fiction writer Isaac Asimov addressed audiences in Europe via live video from New York, describing the connection as a maiden voyage across the sea on a beam of light.
The cable is now being recovered by the MV Maasvliet, a diesel-electric vessel that has faced difficult conditions including storms early in the hurricane season. Crews must coil the cable by hand because fiber-optic strands cannot be machine-wound without risking damage to the glass fibers inside.
Despite being a fiber system, TAT-8 contains significant quantities of high-grade copper used in power and structural components. With global copper supplies projected to tighten in the coming years, the recovered material offers economic value. The steel components will be reused as fencing, while the polyethylene casing will be processed into pellets for non-food-grade plastics.
Globally, an estimated 2 million kilometers of retired subsea cable remain on the seabed, most unrecovered. Only a handful of specialized firms focus entirely on cable recycling. Removing older cables also helps clear established routes for modern replacements without disturbing untouched ocean areas.
The Bell Labs facility in New Jersey where TAT-8’s technology was developed is now known as Bell Works, a mixed-use complex that gained recent fame as the filming location for Lumon Industries headquarters in the Apple TV+ series Severance.