Transatlantic telegraph cables were undersea cables running under the Atlantic Ocean used for telegraph communications. Telegraphy is now an obsolete form of communication and the cables have long since been decommissioned, but telephone and data are still carried on other transatlantic telecommunications cables. The first cable was laid in the 1850s across the floor of the Atlantic from Valentia in western Ireland to Bay of Bulls, Trinity Bay Newfoundland. The first communications occurred August 16, 1858 but the line speed was poor and efforts to improve it caused this cable to fail after three weeks.