Access to overseas websites from the Chinese mainland slowed to
a crawl yesterday as a powerful earthquake off the Taiwan coast
knocked off international undersea fibre-optic cables on Tuesday,
affecting communications around Asia.
It is believed to be the most serious disruption since 2001,
when a submarine cable connecting the mainland with the United
States was cut off more than four times, mostly by fishing
boats.
It is not clear when normal service will be restored.
China Telecom Corp, the mainland's largest fixed-line carrier,
said six undersea cables were cut off 15 kilometers from the
southern coast of Taiwan, causing severe Internet congestion on the
mainland. International voice calls were also affected.
A survey by Internet portal Sina.com yesterday showed that 97
percent of Internet users on the mainland had difficulty accessing
overseas websites, and 57 percent said their lives and work were
affected. But access to mainland websites remains normal.
Such disruptions underscore the increasing importance of back-up
systems.
"We have to use alternative cables as well as satellite
communications," said Xu Yongming, an official in charge of China
Netcom's international network.
He added that mainland operators are working with their overseas
counterparts to repair the damaged cables.
"Aftershocks off Taiwan make it even harder to repair the
damaged cables," said a China Telecom spokeswoman.
The disruption affected telecommunications services in Hong
Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and Japan and paralyzed some
banking services.
In Hong Kong, Internet connection, long distance calls and
online financial transactions were affected, but the stock exchange
said operations were normal.
Internet connection speed was much slower than normal. Some
overseas websites in the United States, Britain and Taiwan could
not be accessed. Emails and online chatting were barely
functioning.
Internet Society of Hong Kong Chairman Charles Mok said overseas
users connecting to Hong Kong and the mainland's websites were also
affected.
Hong Kong Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center
Manager Roy Ko said it might take months to repair the cables.
Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom may be hardest hit. It said repairing
the cable could take three weeks, adding that almost no calls could
be made to Southeast Asia.
Chunghwa said voice calls to the mainland, Japan and the United
States were down 10, 11 and 40 percent of normal capacity.
The Chinese mainland is less affected as operators here have
alternative lines away from quake-hit Taiwan, said Xu with
Netcom.
He said it may take a shorter time to restore communications on
the mainland but limited capacity could slow down access to
overseas websites, especially during peak hours.
Current Internet networks on the mainland already face a
bottleneck in capacity given the growing popularity of broadband
Internet access as well as data-heavy services such as video
downloads.
At the end of November, the mainland had 51 million broadband
Internet subscribers, an increase of 13.7 million compared to the
end of last year, according to the Ministry of Information
Industry.
China Telecom Executive Vice-President Leng Rongquan last week
said the current submarine cable network linking China and the US
will not be able to meet demand after 2008.
Six operators from China, South Korea and the United States
including Verizon Business last week signed a deal to build a
submarine cable linking China and the United States at an
investment of US$500 million.
The new cable will have more than 60 times the overall capacity
of the existing one linking the United States and China.
(China Daily December 28, 2006)
