Asians face at least 2 more weeks of Internet disruption
By Donald Greenlees
Sunday, December 31, 2006
HONG KONG
The telecommunications regulator in Hong Kong said Sunday that the
first of six cables damaged in an earthquake last week would not be
restored until Jan. 16, and that work on the remaining cables would
not be completed until the end of the month.
This means that internet users in some countries in the region,
particularly Hong Kong and Taiwan, will continue to experience
either slow access to the web or be unable to access sites.
The repair work has been hampered by bad weather and mechanical
failure. One of two maintenance ships was forced to abandon the
effort to repair damaged cables Saturday after suffering a "major
fault" and sailing to Taiwan, the Office of the Telecommunications
Authority in Hong Kong said.
"The repair of the ship is expected to take about a week," the
authority said in a statement. "Therefore the repair of the cables
has to be postponed."
Hong Kong's biggest telecommunications company, PCCW, initially
lost half its internet capacity after the earthquake, which
occurred off southern Taiwan, but has since been able to restore
connections to international websites at very slow speeds.
International telephone services are almost back to normal across
the region after telecommunications companies re-routed calls to
satellites and functioning cables. Singapore Telecommunications,
Southeast Asia's largest phone operator, said Sunday that voice and
internet access was "back to normal," Bloomberg News
reported.
The earthquake, which struck on Dec. 26 with a magnitude of 6..7,
caused unprecedented disruption to regional communications. Six out
of seven undersea telecommunications cables carrying the vast
majority of East Asia's data and voice traffic were severed or
damaged.
Telecommunications carriers and cable owners have been struggling
to restore normal telecommunications ahead of the resumption of
business activity on Jan. 2 after the New Year holiday. The major
carriers have given priority to meeting contracted service
obligations to corporate clients in major financial centers.
Still, the telecommunications industry has been shocked by the
extent of the disruption. The telecommunications authority in Hong
Kong had initially predicted that repair work could be completed
within five to seven days.
"The five to seven days was an estimate based on past experience,"
said Au Man Ho, director general of the authority in an interview.
"In the past, we have not experienced damage as extensive as
this."
He added: "This is an unprecedented natural disaster."
He said regional telecommunication carriers would have to review
plans for how they dealt with such a major collapse in
capacity.
