planned. By 1959 most radio circuits for Telex were using ARQ. International shortwave ARQ data links have been replaced by undersea cables and satellite circuits. The New Zealand Post Office used a two channel multiplex ARQ system to communicate on two circuits between Wellington and Vancouver and Sydney over shortwave radio for a few years till 1961. The radio link was available for 22 or 23 hours a day, and could improve the error rate from 1% to 0.001%. In 1961 the radio system became a backup for the primary Commonwealth Pacific Cable System (COMPAC) undersea cable, with telegraph operations conducted using voice frequency telegraphy over telephone channels instead. The Department of Transport in Australia used to run several multiplexed ARQ data links to remote airports prior to the use of AUSSAT. These were calls the aeronautical fixed teletype network. It was used to communicate aeronautical and meteorological data. A station at Perth, VZPH and VKP communicated with Cocos Island VZCC, Port Headland VZPD, Darwin VZPM, and Sydney VZSY. The stations in Sydney (Pernrith Rx, Llandilo Tx) communicated with Alice Springs, VZAS, Mount Isa, VZMA, Norfolk Island VZNF, and Lord Howe Island, VZLH. International radioteletype links connected Sydney (as VLS3) to Singapore on 9ME and Jakarta 8BB. Radio Corporation of America, who were the first in USA to use ARQ-M, named their ARQ equipment "automatic error reduction and correction equipment". By 1990 use of ARQ-M had reduced. However it was still used by French Forces to communicate between Paris, and N'Djamena, Djibouti, Port de France, Papeete, Dakar, Port-Bouët, Le Port, Reunion. One link ran between Companhia Portuguesa Radio Marconi in Lisbon and the Vatican. The British Royal Army, Navy and Air force still used it from England and Gibraltar. Moscow had a link with Kabul, Havana and Hanoi. ASECNA had a network of west African airports. Moroni in the Comoros has a link to Paris, Stockholm had a link to Ho Chi Minh City, and Brussels had a link to Kinshasa. Canadian armed forces used shortwave radio as satellite links into the Arctic are difficult. Martin-de-Viviès, and Port-aux-Français connected back to France for Direction des Telecommunications des Reseaux Exterieurs. On 17 November 2005 the European patent office rejected an appeal about overturned patent number 0309763 from NEC which attempted to patent a multiplexing system, after they agreed that it did not add anything new beyond European patent 0099101 A and