EARTHQUAKE HITS DATA TRANSFER IN ASIA

An earthquake struck 23km off south-western Taiwan last Tuesday, measured at 6.7 on the Richter scale by Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau. Telephone, Internet and data services were disrupted, forcing stock dealers in Hong Kong to resort to back-up systems after some trading platforms failed. Taiwan’s largest telecom company Chunghwa Telecom said that undersea cables were damaged by aftershocks and that it was down to 2% of normal capacity in the immediate aftermath of the quake. The company said that it would take two to three weeks to repair the cable lines, at a cost of more than NT$10m. Other telecoms operators in Hong Kong and South Korea also reported serious damage to data capacity. Blackberry services in Hong Kong were temporarily suspended and CNN International cancelled its evening broadcast from Hong Kong. Repairs to at least eight fibre-optic cables were still being undertaken today, with back-up cables being used for much Internet access in the region. Hong Kong’s Office of the Telecommunications Authority said that repair of all cables was expected by the end of January.