The Imperial Wireless Chain was a strategic international wireless telegraphy communications network, created to link the countries of the British Empire. Although the idea was conceived prior to World War I, Britain was the last of the world's Great Powers to implement an operational system. The first link in the chain, between Leafield in Oxfordshire and Cairo, Egypt, eventually opened on 24 April 1922, with the final link, between Australia and Canada, opening on 16 June 1928.