Chunghwa Telecom Co, the nation's biggest phone company, said yesterday that it had restored voice services to the US, Canada and China by rerouting connections after earthquakes on Tuesday damaged two undersea cables.
Voice services to Hong Kong and Singapore were expected to be partially restored soon as the company completes agreements on rerouting the connections, Chunghwa vice president Leng Tai-feng (冷台芬) said by telephone last night.
Chunghwa Telecom said it activated its backup system and was relying on two remaining undersea cables. But it would take at least two to three weeks to restore the damaged cables and restore normal data services, the company said.
Links to the US, Japan, China and Southeast Asia were damaged by the quakes on Tuesday night, and millions of Internet and telephone connections across Asia were severely disrupted or slowed yesterday. Banks and businesses across the region also reported problems with communications.
HSBC customers, for instance, were unable to access online banking services in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China, said Vinh Tran, a company spokeswoman in Hong Kong.
Securities traders in Hong Kong and Singapore were unable to obtain prices and complete orders after networks linking financial companies were disrupted.
Dealers said, however, that because it is around Christmas, the impact would be less serious.
Chunghwa Telecom estimates that about 30 percent of its users of overseas data transmission have been affected, with those in Southeast Asia suffering most.
Chunghwa earlier yesterday said that telephone calls to the US were down to 40 percent of normal capacity, while calls to China were down to 10 percent and 11 percent for Japan.
It promised to compensate clients by charging lower fees. It also said it had sought help from other undersea cable suppliers and telecom operators to improve its services.
"Data is more difficult to restore because it is high speed," Leng said.
Primary cables were being repaired by another company, she added.
Taiwan's undersea communications cable system consists of seven lines extending from the northern and southern points of the island. The quake damaged the two southern lines.
Chunghwa said the damaged portions of the cables would be pulled to the surface and repaired aboard a ship.
Damaged cables include the APCN2 cable and Sea-Me-We3 cables, Leng said. Eight STM-1 cables from Okinawa and 4 STM-1 cables from Shanghai are acting as backup, Chunghwa said. The company may also use the ST-1 satellite in the meantime.
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
MORE RESPONSIBILITY: Draftees would be expected to fight alongside professional soldiers, likely requiring the transformation of some training brigades into combat units The armed forces are to start incorporating new conscripts into combined arms brigades this year to enhance combat readiness, the Executive Yuan’s latest policy report said. The new policy would affect Taiwanese men entering the military for their compulsory service, which was extended to one year under reforms by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2022. The conscripts would be trained to operate machine guns, uncrewed aerial vehicles, anti-tank guided missile launchers and Stinger air defense systems, the report said, adding that the basic training would be lengthened to eight weeks. After basic training, conscripts would be sorted into infantry battalions that would take
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
‘REALLY PROUD’: Nvidia would not be possible without Taiwan, Huang said, adding that TSMC would be increasing its capacity by 100 percent Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday praised and lightly cajoled his major Taiwanese suppliers to produce more to help power strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI), capping a visit to the country of his birth, where he has been mobbed by adoring fans at every step. Speaking at an impromptu press conference in the rain outside a Taipei restaurant, where he had hosted suppliers for a “trillion-dollar dinner,” named after the market capitalization of those firms attending, Huang said this would be another good year for business. “TSMC needs to work very hard this year because I need a lot
RSS