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Workers cut through Net, phone cable

Millions of people in Taiwan lost at least some Internet and long distance services yesterday when an underground high-speed communications cable was severed by construction workers in central Taiwan.

Workers from state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) accidentally cut a fiber-optic telephone cable belonging to state-run Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), leaving people across the nation with diminished Internet access and unable to make long-distance calls. The accident occurred at 9:55am yesterday.

"The contractor should have contacted the phone company before digging," said Clint Chou, a spokesman for Taipower.

"Our [central region office] contracted a local company to lay a new transmission cable and they hit the Chunghwa line while digging."

Chunghwa officials said the cable was sheared at a point between Hsinchu and Miaoli. Long-distance and Internet services between Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung, were cut off for hours.

Eastern Taiwan was unaffected.

Chou said discussions had not yet begun on who would pay for the cost of repairing the line.

A Chunghwa Telecom spokesman said the contractor should take some responsibility for paying costs associated with the repair of the cable. It will take several days to assess the cost of the repairs.

By 11am, telecommunications services between Taipei and Taichung were restored, with Kaohsiung back online later in the day, Chunghwa Telecom said in a statement. Full services were operating by 2pm yesterday.

In February, a Taipower contractor severed a power transmission cable servicing the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park (新竹科學園區), cutting off electricity to some of the world's leading semiconductor manufacturers.

During the same month, an undersea cable linking Internet users in Taiwan to North America was severed by Chinese fishing trawlers. In March, the same cable was again severed in nearly the same place.
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