The PITC commenced operations in November 1986 upon the completion of the new AIS cable at a cost of A$300 million, just months after the SEACOM 2 cable was damaged beyond economic repair by an undersea earthquake off the Papua New Guinea coast. The PITC included the first Pacific and Indian Ocean region Inmarsat earth station in the southern hemisphere, and the OTC claimed at the time that PITC was the world's only communications complex to have cable, satellite and high frequency radio links operating from the same location. To this day, it handles a large percentage of Telstra's satellite communications.