Abstract: A cable for carrying high voltage has encompassed on its metallic conductor core with an inner layer of semiconducting material. An insulation layer encompasses this semiconducting layer and is in turn encompassed by an outer semiconducting layer. This outer semiconducting layer is strongly bonded to the underlying insulation layer and its outer surface resistivity is selected to be within the range of 10.sup.7 - 10.sup.9 ohm/square. Such resistivity range equalizes the voltage distribution within the cable jacket and also facilitates splicing cable ends and terminating the cable as the outer semiconducting layer need not and in fact cannot be readily removed.