Cable & Wireless Splits into Two

Cable & Wireless Worldwide began trading as an independent company on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker CW. Cable&Wireless Worldwide provides managed voice, data and IP-based services and applications to large corporates, multinational companies, governments, carrier customers and resellers across the UK and around the globe. It operates an extensive fibre network across the UK, as well as a multiservice NGN with connectivity to 153 countries.

Cable & Wireless Communications also began trading as an independent company on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol CWC. Headquartered in London, Cable & Wireless Communications is composed of four operating units – the Caribbean, Panama, Macau and Monaco & Islands. It operates as a full-service telecommunications provider offering mobile, broadband, and domestic and international fixed line services, as well as enterprise and managed service solutions. As of September 2009, these operations (including subsidiaries and joint ventures) provided services to approximately 8.3 million mobile, 0.6 million broadband and 1.8 million fixed line customers.

The original Cable&Wireless traces its history to a number of British telegraph companies founded by Sir John Pender in the 1860s. In 1866, a Pender-led consortium laid the first submarine cable across the Atlantic Ocean. In subsequent years, submarine cables were laid from the United Kingdom throughout the British Empire. These operations were later merged with the Wireless Telegraph Company founded by Marconi in 1929 to form the Imperial and International Communications Company. During the Thatcher years, Cable&Wireless was one of the first privatizations.
http://www.cw.com
http://www.cwc.com