Taiwan quake disrupts Internet
Posted: 27 December 2006 1222 hrs
HONG KONG: The strong Taiwan earthquake, measuring a magnitude of
7.1, damaged several undersea data cables in the region on
Wednesday, jamming up the Internet, a Hong Kong phone operator
said.
"Due to the earthquake that hit Taiwan last night, several undersea
data cables were damaged," said a spokesman for PCCW, Hong Kong's
biggest fixed-line operator.
"Data traffic to Taiwan, Korea, Japan and the United States is
affected," he said, adding that the company was diverting the data
and monitoring the restoration of the cables.
The spokesman said data capacity has been reduced to 50
percent, and that there had been an upsurge in attempts to
accessing the web in the region as people were trying to get
information about the quake.
He cautioned that some Internet users in the region could
experience congestion over the next several days.
Singapores internet providers, StarHub and
SingTel, were among those affected, as the incident has
resulted in slow internet access.
Both companies said internet traffic diversion and restoration
works are currently underway. SingTel added that its undersea cable
system with Europe was not affected.
Major telecom operators in Japan also said damaged cables had
jammed up phone lines and slowed down the Internet there.
NTT Communications, the internet and long-distance call business of
Japan's largest telecom firm Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.,
said the worst hit were companies.
Some 1,400 toll-free phone lines as well as 84 international lines
used internally by companies were affected by the damage to
underwater cables, NTT spokesman Tomoyuki Okada said.
"Customers have found difficulty in making international
calls and transmitting data," said Satoru Ito, a spokesman
for KDDI Corp., one of Japan's major telecommunication
companies.
He said the company was still probing the extent of the problem but
that communications between Japan and other Asian countries were
still running at a slower pace through a backup system.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange, the world's largest bourse outside of New
York, was functioning without problems, a spokesman said.
Meanwhile, the Hong Kong stock exchange said it was also working
problems although several dealers said they have had problems
accessing international news providers for information.
Most of them said they received complaints from customers who used
the Internet for prices but the disruption has not affected
trading.
"Some of our customers who use the Internet complained that
they can't look at stock prices online. That's our main
problem," said Jackson Wong, investment manager at Tanrich
Securities.
"That has increased our workload because we have customers who keep
calling and asking us the prices that we can get from the trading
floor but in general our service has not been disrupted much," he
said.
Other stock markets in the region appeared to be operating without
major problems, with several setting all-time highs as a recent
bull run continued.
It is not immediately clear when the damage will be repaired.
An official at Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom Co. (CHT) also reported
that the earthquakes have disrupted international phone calls to
and from Asian countries.
Fortunately, mobile and domestic phone calls in Taiwan remain
unaffected.
No stock prices?? 
