Taiwan quake disrupts phone, Web service
By STEPHAN GRAUWELS, Associated Press Writer
Wed Dec 27, 9:33 AM ET
TAIPEI, Taiwan - Telephone lines and Internet service went dead across
much of Asia on Wednesday after two powerful earthquakes damaged
undersea cables used by several countries to route calls and online
traffic.
Repairing the cables could take weeks because crews have to pull them up
and transfer them to a ship for repair, said Lin Jen-hung, vice general
manager of Chunghwa Telecom Co., Taiwan’s largest phone company.
The quakes jolted Taiwan late Tuesday, setting off a tsunami alert on
the second anniversary of the Dec. 26, 2004, waves and quake that killed
230,000 in nine countries from the Indonesian islands to east Africa.
No large waves materialized this time but two people were killed when
their home collapsed.
Two cables were damaged, both off Taiwan’s coast, Chunghwa said.
The company reported a 50 percent loss of overall telephone capacity,
with connections to China, Japan and Southeast Asia most affected.
Chunghwa also said almost all of Taiwan’s communications capacity with
Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong was disrupted. Also hard hit
was telephone service to the U.S., where 60 percent of capacity was
lost, the company said.
Internet access in Beijing was cut or extremely slow, while Japanese
customers were having trouble calling India and the Middle East. In
South Korea, dozens of companies and institutions were affected,
including the country’s Foreign Ministry.
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 extremely slow 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 city 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 U.S.
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 are usually use the cables near Taiwan.
Maeda said the company was rerouting calls to go through the U.S. 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 cell phones in countries including Taiwan.
South Korea’s largest telecom company, KT, said that lines it uses were
damaged, affecting dozens of companies and institutions, including South
Korea’s Foreign Ministry.
However, the quake didn’t cause problems for ordinary people using
Internet and telephone service, according to Ku Ja-hong, a KT spokesman.
The quake, which hit offshore from the southern town of Hengchun, was
felt throughout Taiwan. It shook buildings and knocked objects off the
shelves in the capital, Taipei, in the northern part of the island.
The U.S. Geological Survey estimated its magnitude at 7.1, while
Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau measured it at 6.7. It was followed
eight minutes later by 7.0 magnitude aftershock, the USGS said. A 5.9-
magnitude aftershock struck early Wednesday, the Central Weather Bureau
said.
Two members of one family were killed in Hengchun when their four-story
home collapsed. The quake injured 42 people, three homes collapsed and
12 fires broke out, the National Fire Agency said.
Quakes frequently shake Taiwan, which is part of the Pacific’s “Ring of
Fire,” an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
Most are minor and cause little or no damage. However, a 7.6-magnitude
earthquake in central Taiwan in September 1999 killed more than 2,300
people.
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