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Fixing quake-damaged undersea cables will take weeks
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By Hiroko Tabuchi
Associated Press
Last updated 07:23pm (Mla time) 01/17/2007
TOKYO -- Replacing undersea telecommunication cables damaged three
weeks ago by an earthquake off Taiwan will take until the
end of February, Japanese communications companies
said Wednesday.
The magnitude 7.1 quake of December 26 snapped undersea cables near
Taiwan, disrupting phone and Internet communications across a large
part of Asia as companies scrambled to reroute traffic through
satellites and undamaged cables.
NTT Communications, the international unit of Japan's largest
telecommunications company, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp.,
said in a statement issued Tuesday that it had restored Internet,
data connection and telephone services to near pre-quake levels by
rerouting connections and collaborating with other carriers.
But replacing the damaged cables was expected to take until the end
of February, and international callers could still face disruptions
during peak times until then, according to NTT Communications
spokesman Tei Gordon.
"Rather than using existing cables, we have rerouted and are
relaying through different routes," Gordon said. "This is a
temporary arrangement...as we put in new cabling in damaged
sections."
"The quake occurred in probably the most congested area of cabling,
which is what has really magnified the problem," Gordon said.
Another Japanese telecommunications company, KDDI Corp., said
services had been restored to near pre-quake levels though a full
recovery would also take until the end of February, when it expects
to finish repairs.
The extent of the damage and the distance of affected areas from
Japan made a quick recovery difficult, said KDDI spokesman Keiichi
Sakurai.
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