Millions of frustrated internet users across Asia slowly regained access to overseas websites on Friday, three days after an earthquake off the coast of Taiwan snapped several vital undersea cables.
Telecoms operators across the region re-routed internet links to circumvent the ruptured lines off the southern part of the island, as engineers donned diving suits to assess the damage and begin repairs.
“Everything is improving now,” said a spokesperson for PCCW, Hong Kong’s largest fixed-line operator.
“All international call and roaming services have gone back to normal, including to Taiwan, although some websites are still congested,” he said.
Authorities in the southern Chinese territory said five maintenance ships had been dispatched to repair six fiber-optic cables, which handle about 90% of telecommunications capacity in the area.
The government said repairs could take up to a week.
Taiwan’s largest phone company, Chunghwa Telecom, has commissioned three more ships to assist the repair effort. The cables ruptured following Tuesday’s 7,1-magnitude earthquake, which killed two people on the island.
Internet users frustrated by their inability to log onto e-mail accounts, news websites and online banking services — conveniences that have become part of modern life — found access across the region on Friday improved but still patchy.
South-east Asia’s largest telecom operator Singapore Telecommunications said it has established a “command centre” to restore affected internet, BlackBerry and private data network services as quickly as possible.
“We continue to work closely with other submarine cable consortium members to restore and repair the damaged cables as soon as possible,” the company said.
The SingTel Group has interests in about 50 submarine cables with landing points in more than 50 locations in Asia, the company says.
“Recovery work is moving ahead quickly, with nearly all financial institutions including foreign banks back to normal overnight,” said Hong Seong-Yong, an official at the South Korean communications ministry.
Most internet and telephone services had been restored across South Korea on Friday, although 49 exclusive business lines — 41 run by Korean Telecom and eight by LG Dacom — remained out of order.
The state-run Xinhua news agency characterised the week’s web difficulties as “cyber-chaos”, with a source at China Netcom saying progress on restoring service to the mainland had been slow.
China Netcom said two boats had been sent out to start repairing the damaged lines and three others would soon depart, the China Daily reported.
Connections remained slow in Malaysia and Thailand, where the communications authority CAT Telecom said capacity had only been restored to 50%.
“Thailand is still lucky compared to other countries where Internet connections have totally collapsed,” a CAT official said.
Indonesia’s telecoms authorities said it could take up to a month to restore internet capacity which has fallen to just 17% following Tuesday’s quake.
“This incident is a major problem for us,” director general of post and telecommunications Basuki Yusuf Iskandar was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Post.
Analysts said it was too early to estimate the total financial losses caused by the week’s internet mayhem. Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom put preliminary losses at 150-million Taiwan dollars ($4,6-million).
“They are the hardest hit, I would say,” noted Sachin Mittal with DBS Vickers Securities in Singapore. “Probably all the [other] telcos will be less than Chunghwa. – AFP