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Thursday, December 28, 2006
Communications cut off after earthquake strikes Taiwan
MANILA -- Telephone and Internet service was disrupted across Asia on Wednesday, hours after a powerful earthquake struck the southern part of Taiwan, killing two and triggering a regional tsunami alert.
Telecommunications giants Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) and Globe Telecoms said their operations were disrupted following an earthquake that hit Taiwan on Tuesday.
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In a statement, PLDT and Smart said the international cable facilities they are utilizing "suffered major cable breaks that has affected their operations."
"As a result, IDD and broadband Internet services are currently intermittent," said the two phone firms.
However, domestic PLDT and Smart voice and data services are operating normally.
Smart said restoration is being undertaken and they hoped that operations would normalize soon. "The international consortium operating these cable systems has already mobilized cable ships to repair the affected segments, and restoration is being conducted round the clock," it added.
Globe, in a separate statement, said it will hasten the restoration of their services in the areas affected specifically Taiwan, Japan, Korea and the US.
The quakes damaged some undersea cable systems off the cost of Taiwan thus affecting communication services in Asia.
The mobile phone operators appealed to their customers for understanding.
"In the meantime, we are maximizing the use of available international linkages and finding alternative routes to hasten restoration of normal service," they said.
A phone company official in Taiwan said it will be weeks before communications return to normal.
Wu Chih-ming of Chunghwa Telecom Co. underscore the damage caused by the 6.7 magnitude tremor that hit offshore, near the southern Taiwanese town of Hengchun late Tuesday.
Chunghwa, Taiwan's largest phone company, said the quake damaged two undersea cables off the Taiwanese coast. The lines route calls and process Internet traffic for several Asian countries.
Taiwan's undersea communications cable system consists of seven lines, extending from northern and southern points on the island.
Although the earthquake only damaged the two southern lines, the northern lines were also affected, because the cables are interconnected.
Wu said the damaged portion of the cables will be pulled to the surface and repaired aboard ships.
However, he said it was not clear exactly what part of the cables had been damaged, and that repair vessels were not expected to begin work before the end of the week.
He said the repairs would extend well into January.
"On average, if the problems with the cables are less than 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) deep, the repair teams should only need two weeks," he said. "But if it's deeper, it could take three weeks."
With repair prospects so uncertain, there were fears of further communications difficulties in Taiwan, Asia's fifth largest economy, and additional telephone and Internet glitches in neighboring countries including Japan, China, and South Korea.
The damage to the two communications lines cut off 50 percent to 60 percent of Chunghwa's overall telephone capacity, the company said, severely affecting connections to China, Japan and Southeast Asia.
Service to the United States -- where 60 percent of capacity was lost -- was also hard hit.
Hong Kong telephone company PCCW Ltd., which also provides Internet service, said the quake cut its data capacity in half. Many Internet users were unable to access Web sites in parts of America, Taiwan and South Korea. Calls to Taiwan weren't connecting.
Internet access was cut or severely slowed 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 no further details.
Businesses in various parts of the Chinese capital also said they were experiencing Internet access problems.
CCTV, the state-run television network, said China Telecom Corp., China's biggest phone company, was contacting counterparts in the US and Europe about using satellites to make up for the shortfall.
KDDI Corp., Japan's major carrier for international calls, said its fixed-line telephone service was affected by the quake. Company spokesman Haruhiko Maeda said customers were having trouble calling India and the Middle East, which usually use the cables near Taiwan.
Maeda said the company was rerouting calls through the US and Europe and the company did 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 -- was affected.
Ministry official Akira Yamanaka said that some customers were unable to make calls using their mobile phones in some countries and territories, including Taiwan.
South Korea's largest telecom company, KT, said the lines it uses were damaged, affecting dozens of companies and institutions, including South Korea's Foreign Ministry.
However, ordinary people using Internet and telephone services were not affected, according to Ku Ja-hong, a KT spokesman.
Chunghwa's Wu said the company was not sure where normal communications service would resume first.
"The communications cables are not divided up per country, so no country will find its situation improving sooner or later than the others," he said.
Late Wednesday evening, telephone service from Taiwan was still spotty, with few regional calls going through, and some domestic service disrupted.
The quake struck at 8:26 p.m. (1226 GMT), panicking residents throughout southern Taiwan, causing buildings to sway and knocking objects off the shelves in the capital of Taipei, 450 kilometers (260 miles) north of the epicenter.
In Hengchun, a four-story building collapsed, killing two and injuring six others, part of swath of destruction that ignited fires, destroyed homes, and buckled roads and bridges in the area.
The tremor triggered a tsunami alert for southern Taiwan and the Philippines.
Japan's Meteorological Bureau said a one-meter (3.3-foot) tsunami might be headed toward the eastern coast of the Philippines, but later lifted the warning.
"The expected waves did not materialize ... the danger has passed," said Hiroshi Koide of the agency's earthquake section.
"We predicted a tsunami based on the depth and magnitude of the earthquake. But ultimately, it appears no large tsunami was triggered."
Renato Solidum, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), denied reports that a one-meter high tsunami is on its way to Basco, Batanes.
Solidum said the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii did not release a tsunami warning. The Hawaii monitoring center issued a similar warning that said: "Earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts located within a hundred kilometers of the earthquake epicenter."
Early Wednesday another aftershock, measuring 5.9, was registered in the area, the Central Weather Bureau said. (AP/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Iloilo. (December 28, 2006 issue)
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