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Chunghwa close to fixing damage for major customers

Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation's largest telephone operator, said it expected to fix all phone and Internet connections for its biggest customers by yesterday after an earthquake and aftershocks damaged undersea cables.

Only 1 percent of major customers' dedicated lines are damaged now, compared with about 30 percent immediately after the quake, Lin Jen-hung (林仁紅), president of the Taipei-based company's International Business Group, said in a telephone interview.

The biggest customers, including Mastercard Inc and Taiwan's Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子), contribute about 15 percent of revenue at the company's international business, he said.

Target

"Our target is to fix them all by tonight," Lin said yesterday.

More than 80 percent of calls made through Chunghwa Telecom to the US, Canada, Japan, Europe and China can be connected now, rising from less than 30 percent after the quakes, Lin said.

The rate for Hong Kong and Singapore has recovered to between 50 percent and 60 percent, from less than 10 percent, he said.

Chunghwa estimated repairs would take two to three weeks. Ships will drag a large grappling hook across the ocean floor to find the broken cable before pulling it to the surface for inspection, according to the company.

Repairs

Cables will be repaired by cutting out damaged sections and rejoining with new pieces, with the ships equipped to conduct all necessary work.

After the quake, the biggest in the area in 100 years, traffic from the China-US cable and the south section of the Sea-Me-We3 line that connects Asia to Europe was automatically rerouted to other cables.

Those backup cables, the ACPN and ACPN2 intra-Asia lines, later broke because of aftershocks, worsening network congestion, Chunghwa said.

Cables

Other cables affected include C2C Group Ltd's C2C cable, which connects Korea through to Singapore, Reliance Communication Ltd's Flag North Asia Loop which connects Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China, as well as Reach Ltd's North Asian Loop connecting Japan through to Hong Kong, according to operators.
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