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The following is an update by the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) as at 11am today (December 28) on the impact on external telecommunication services due to the earthquake near Taiwan on December 26:
Facts:
Due to a series of earthquakes south-southeast of Gaoxiong, Taiwan at around 1226 UTC on December 26, 2006, nearly all the submarine cables passing over the earthquake region and connected to Japan, Korea, the US, Canada, etc. were damaged and broken. According to the reports submitted to OFTA by telecommunications operators, six out of the seven main submarine cable systems in the Luzon Strait were broken down one by one at different time from 8.43pm at December 26 to December 27. The cables account for about 90% of the total capacity and mainly affect connections to Japan, Taiwan, Korea, the US and Canada.
Impact:
Due to the damage of most of the submarine cables, all the external telecommunications services including IDD calls, roaming calls and Internet access to overseas were seriously affected starting from the morning of December 27 when business resumed. It did not affect any local telecommunications services.
Latest Service Status:
Operators have implemented contingency plans and arrange re-routing of the traffic via all other cables which are still in service. At present, voice call services including IDD calls and roaming calls to most of the countries/territories except for Taiwan have nearly resumed normal. However, Internet access to overseas web sites is still congested.
Repairing Status:
Two submarine cable maintenance ships from Singapore and the Philippines are on the way to the scene. Three more ships will depart today.
In general, it requires about five to seven days to repair the cables. However, due to the earthquake, the seabed may have been damaged and there may be further earthquakes that will affect the maintenance work.
Ends/Thursday, December 28, 2006
Issued at HKT 12:39
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