Quake cuts off much of Asia Internet

Dec 27 5:04 AM US/Eastern

Internet and phone services have been disrupted across much of Asia after an earthquake damaged undersea cables, leaving one of the world’s most tech-savvy regions in a virtual blackout.

From frustrated traders seeking in vain for stock quotes to anxious newshounds accustomed to round-the-clock updates on world events, millions of people from China to Japan to Australia were believed to have been affected.

There was no chaos on the stock exchanges or any of the other doomsday scenarios of science fiction, but reports that services could be down for weeks were dramatic enough.

"It is not a matter of days," said Hong Seoung-Yong, an official with South Korea’s information and communication ministry. "It will take longer than that to repair the damaged lines."

A 7.1-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Taiwan on Tuesday night, which was followed by several smaller quakes in the region, apparently damaged the vast network of underwater cables that enables modern communication.

"The Internet capacity in Taiwan is about 40 percent now, so the service is jammed," said a spokesman for Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan’s largest phone company on Tuesday.

The disruption was widespread, hitting China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and elsewhere, with knock-on effects as far away as Australia for companies whose Internet is routed through affected areas.

Phone services in some countries were also disrupted, in particular for calls to the United States.

"Several undersea data cables were damaged," said a spokesman for PCCW, Hong Kong’s biggest telecoms company.

Service providers quickly tried to redirect customers to the cables that had not been affected but the reduced capacity was no match for the normal workload of users, leaving Internet service that was painfully slow or non-existent.

"It’s a nightmare, basically, because we have no idea what is going on in the markets today," said Steve Rowles, an analyst with CFC Seymour in Hong Kong, who echoed others in saying that damage was limited due to year’s end.

"It has happened on the right day as a lot of people are away for holidays, so there’s low trading volumes," he said.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange, the world’s largest bourse outside of New York, was functioning without problems, a spokesman said.

The Hong Kong stock exchange also said it was also working without problems, but after-hours crude trading in Singapore was affected as traders reported they could not access the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex).

NTT Communications, the long-distance call business of Japan’s largest telecom firm Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., said 1,400 toll-free phone lines and 84 international lines used internally by companies were affected.

Internet disruptions were felt across China, with web-users in cities as far apart as Beijing in the north and Chengdu in the southwest reporting difficulties accessing overseas websites, state media reported.

The crux of the trouble seemed to be in the underseas routes near Taiwan, which providers would try to bypass in favour of other routes through Europe, said a spokesman for Japanese telecoms firm KDDI Corp, Satoru Ito.

"If there is too much traffic on that route, it might get blocked up and further slow down Internet connections," Ito said.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/12/27/061227100430.q1satn81.html