China Firms Say Quake-Hit Telecom Lines Repaired

DISASTER MANAGEMENT

The internet is nearly back online in China.

by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) Jan 31, 2007
China's biggest telecommunications firms have restored nearly all phone and Internet capacity that was affected by last month's cable-severing earthquake near Taiwan, state media reported Tuesday. China Telecom and China Netcom said major cables handling fiber-optic traffic, mostly between China and North America, had been "basically" fixed, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.

The companies are now focusing on repairing other cables that carried much smaller volumes of traffic, the paper said, quoting company officials.

Capacity would be fully restored in the next two weeks, they said.

The 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck the seabed near Taiwan on December 26, snapping a number of undersea international telecom cables.

The breakages caused major communications disruptions in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and further afield.

Various telecoms firms sent ships to repair the cables through a complicated procedure that involves pulling the heavy cables up from the ocean floor.

Though Chinese Internet services were largely restored in a matter of days by rerouting traffic to other telecom lines, web-surfing speeds had remained relatively sluggish.

Source: Agence France-Presse

DISASTER MANAGEMENT

Repairs To Quake-Hit Asia Internet Cables Delayed Again

Hong Kong (AFP) Jan 29, 2007
Hong Kong's telecom regulator said Monday bad weather had again delayed full repairs to undersea cables damaged last year by an earthquake, which badly disrupted Internet access in parts of Asia. The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) said most of the seven submarine cables, damaged by a powerful 7.1-magnitude temblor off Taiwan on December 26, have now been fixed but that one will take longer than estimated.

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