Cellular phone users in three suburban areas of Taipei were still disconnected from service as of press time yesterday, as mobile transmission sites remained without power.
The three areas -- Neihu, Nankang and Hsichih -- were badly flooded by Typhoon Nari and most underground electrical switching equipment to cellphone transmitters remains inoperable.
According to a damage report released by Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday, 828 cell phone transmission sites around the country were still out of service, with Taipei City recording the most damage at 283 sites, followed by Taipei County with 270 and Keelung City with 150.
A senior official at Chunghwa Telecom Corp (中華電信) said most of the transmission sites in Taipei County are slated to be fixed today, however total repairs won't be completed until next week.
"We have to wait for the pumps to remove the water from basements, and then reconnect power to the transmission equipment," said Shih Mu-piao (石木標), deputy chief engineer at Chunghwa.
Almost 307,117 households around the country were still without phone service as of press time, most of them located in Taipei City and Taipei County.
Chunghwa reported 306,000 phone lines out and other fixed line operators -- Eastern Broadband Telecommunications Co Ltd (東森寬頻), Sparq (速博電信) and Taiwan Fixed Network Corp (台灣固網) -- reported a combined total of one thousand lines damaged lines.
As for the preliminary damage estimates, Chunghwa's losses are estimated at NT$890 million, with half of that from destroyed power and switching equipment, the Ministry said.
Another leading mobile phone operator, Taiwan Cellular Corp (台灣大哥大), reported 164 transmission site malfunctions and NT$120 million in losses, the securities and futures commission said yesterday.
A telecom industry analyst said the impact on the two mobile phone companies would be minimal. "Both the US terrorist attack and Typhoon Nari sent phone service demand through the roof and brought in a lot of extra income," said Nathan Lin (
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