3. Taiwan quake cripples Thai Internet
Internet slowdown to be a pain for at least three weeks
BANGKOK: -- Telecommunications across Asia have been severely
disrupted because of damage to undersea cables caused by Tuesday's
earthquake near Taiwan.
Banks and businesses in Taiwan, South Korea, China and Japan reported
telephone and internet problems. In Thailand, Internet access slowed to
a crawl, with up to 90 per cent of e-mail and web access impossible.
There was no word from CAT Telecom, the government monopoly which supplies
all Internet service to Thailand.
Taiwan's largest telephone company, Chunghwa Telecom Co, said damage to
an undersea cable had disrupted 98% of Taiwan's communications with
Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong. Repairs could take three
weeks, Vice-General Manager Lin Jen-hung said, but quality would improve
daily.
Telecommunications companies in Hong Kong, Japan and China also reported
problems. China's biggest telecoms provider, China Telecommunications
Group, said that communications cables to the US and to Europe had been
damaged. "Internet connections have been seriously affected, and phone
links and dedicated business lines have also been affected to some
degree," it said.
Repairing the cables harmed by Tuesday's 6.7-magnitude quake could take
three weeks but "quality will improve day by day," said Lin Jen-hung,
vice general manager of Chunghwa Telecom Co., Taiwan's largest phone
company. The company said damage to a cable off Taiwan's southern coast
has interrupted 98 percent of Taiwan's communications capacity with
Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong.
The damaged lines knocked out Internet service for some Hong Kong
customers, who were unable to access Web sites in parts of Asia and the
U.S. Hong Kong telephone company PCCW Ltd., which also provides Internet
service, said several undersea data cables were damaged in the quake.
"Data traffic to Taiwan, Korea, Japan and the United States are affected,"
PCCW said in a statement. The company also warned customers that they may
experience congestion for several days on the Internet because of an
upsurge in use as people surf the Web for more information about the
quake.
Financial traders in Hong Kong - one of Asia's biggest business capitals
- complained they lost their connection to Bloomberg LP, a key provider
of news and data about stock markets. Bloomberg declined to immediately
comment on the outage.
Internet access has been cut or has become extremely slow in Beijing, said
an official from China Netcom, China's No. 2 phone company. The official,
who would not give his name, said the cause was thought to be the
earthquake, but he had not further details. Businesses in various parts
of the city also said they were experiencing Internet access problems.
CCTV, the state-run television network, said the earthquake had damaged
undersea communications cables from China to the United States and from
Asia to Europe. It said China Telecom Corp., China's biggest phone company,
was contacting counterparts in the United States and Europe about using
satellites to make up for the shortfall.
KDDI Corp., Japan's major carrier for international calls, said Thursday
that its fixed-line telephone service has been intermittently affected
following the quake. KDDI spokesman Haruhiko Maeda said that the quake
damaged several undersea communication cables in southern Taiwan shared
among international communication companies. He said that customers are
having trouble making calls to India and the Middle East, which are
usually routed through cables near Taiwan. Maeda said the company is
rerouting calls to go through the U.S. and Europe and the company does not
know how long it will take to repair the cables.
Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said that
international roaming service provided by Japan's major three
telecommunications - NTT DoCoMO, KDDI, and Softbank, has been affected.
Ministry official Akira Yamanaka said that some customers were unable to
make calls using their mobile phones in countries including Taiwan.
The quake, which hit offshore from the town of Hengchun near Taiwan's
southern tip, came on the second anniversary of the tsunami that killed
more than 200,000 lives in southern Asia. Tuesday's quake was felt
throughout Taiwan. It shook buildings and knocked objects off the shelves
in the capital, Taipei, in the northern part of the island. Two members of
one family were killed Tuesday in Hengchun when their four-story home
collapsed. The quake injured 42 people, three homes collapsed and 12
fires broke out, the National Fire Agency said.
--Bangkok Post 2006-12-27
I hope this newsletter was useful to you and welcome all inquiries
and comments.
Tim Rice
Managing Director
Stationery & Stuff, Phuket Thailand.
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