Internet slowdown
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP): A strong earthquake off Taiwan's southern coast damaged undersea cables, cutting off phone and Internet service Wednesday to parts of China, South Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia and the United States, companies said. The temblor killed two people.Source: The Star
Repairing the cables harmed by Tuesday's 6.7-magnitude quake could take three weeks but "quality will improve day by day,'' said Lin Jen-hung, vice general manager of Chunghwa Telecom Co., Taiwan's largest phone company.
The company said damage to a cable off Taiwan's southern coast has interrupted 98 percent of Taiwan's communications capacity with Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong.
The damaged lines knocked out Internet service for some Hong Kong customers, who were unable to access Web sites in parts of Asia and the U.S.
Hong Kong telephone company PCCW Ltd., which also provides Internet service, said several undersea data cables were damaged in the quake.
"Data traffic to Taiwan, Korea, Japan and the United States are affected,'' PCCW said in a statement.
The company also warned customers that they may experience congestion for several days on the Internet because of an upsurge in use as people surf the Web for more information about the quake.
Financial traders in Hong Kong -- one of Asia's biggest business capitals -- complained they lost their connection to Bloomberg LP, a key provider of news and data about stock markets. Bloomberg declined to immediately comment on the outage.
Internet access has been cut or has become 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 not further details. Businesses in various parts of the city also said they were experiencing Internet access problems.
CCTV, the state-run television network, said the earthquake had damaged undersea communications cables from China to the United States and from Asia to Europe.
It said China Telecom Corp., China's biggest phone company, was contacting counterparts in the United States and Europe about using satellites to make up for the shortfall.
The quake, which hit offshore from the town of Hengchun near Taiwan's southern tip, came on the second anniversary of the tsunami that killed more than 200,000 lives in southern Asia.
Japan's Meteorological Bureau said Tuesday a one-meter (3.3-foot) tsunami might be headed toward the eastern coast of the Philippines, but officials later lifted the warning.
In Taiwan, two members of one family were killed Tuesday in Hengchun when their four-story home collapsed. Six other members of the family were rescued from under the rubble early Wednesday, the National Fire Agency said in a statement.
The quake injured 42 people, three homes collapsed and 12 fires broke out, the fire agency said.
Tuesday's quake was felt throughout Taiwan. It shook buildings and knocked objects off the shelves in the capital, Taipei, in the northern part of the island.
Several high-rise hotels swayed violently in the southern city of Kaohsiung, CTI Cable News reported.
Liao Ching-ling, a manager at the city's Ambassador Hotel, said the quake was the strongest she had ever felt.
"The building swayed so badly that many guests panicked and ran out of their rooms and into the streets,'' she 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.
That explains why my internet connection is slow. UTM connection is slow too. Use proxy to surf.
Chili. Smokin'
Taken on 13 Feb 06
Taken on 16 Feb 06
Taken on 20 Feb 06
Taken at one of the cafe in Tmn. U
