Quake disrupts telecom industry

Nearly 1.67 million mobile phone users and 110,000 households have been affected by yesterday's strong earthquake. However, local car manufacturers do not expect heavy losses resulting from power cuts caused by the quake.

According to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) as of 7pm last night, the earthquake had paralyzed a total of 2,286 mobile phone base stations in Taiwan affecting 1.67 million mobile phone users.

Mobita Communications Corp (東信電訊) reported the heaviest damage as it's a major mobile phone service provider for the central part of Taiwan where the epicenter of the earthquake was situated. Of 404 base stations, 322 stations, or 80 percent, were damaged, thus effecting 26,000 users. "We are trying to get the system back in line but we don't know how long it will take. What we can say now is that we will try our best," said an executive with the company.

However, he refused to divulge a rough estimate of what the damage would cause to the company or the impact of the earthquake on the company's operations and financial structure.

Following Mobita, other private mobile phone service providers also reported base station damage. Far EasTone Telecommunications Co Ltd (遠傳電信) suffered damage to 47 percent of base stations, Pacific Communications Service Co Ltd (台灣大哥大) 27 percent, KG Telecommunications Co Ltd (和信電訊) 19 percent, and Tuntex Telecommunications Co Ltd (東榮電信) 15 percent. Due to system failure, the number users of these companies encountering transmission problems was 670,000, 510,000, 21,000, and 20,000 respectively.

Trans Asia Telecommunications Inc. (泛亞電信) was the only company which reported no damage to their base stations with all 545 of its base stations still intact.

As for the state carrier Chunghwa Telecom (中華電信), its 0928, 0932, 0933, and 0937 numbers were all paralyzed as of last night. Although the company couldn't tell how many base stations and users were effected, it said that the earthquake has caused transmission disconnection to nearly 110,000 households in Taiwan.

All telecommunication companies expect a more accurate damage report to be available in the next few days.

Compared to the telecommunication sector, the impact of the earthquake on the car industry seems to be less critical.

Yulon Motor Co Ltd (裕隆汽車) said its initial estimate showed that the loss resulting from this earthquake would be limited to only NT$7 million.

"The damage report we have received so far is that a couple of cars fell off shelves. Liquid used for electronically discharge spilled out and needs to be recharged. The production lines were suspended yesterday because of power cuts and water shortage," Tsai Wan-Jung (蔡文榮), a spokesman for Yulon. "But these will not have a material impact on the financial results of the company as most of the losses will be covered by insurance," he added.

Chang Ching-Ju (張靜如), spokeswoman at Ford Lio Ho Motor Company Ltd (福特六和) said that no major damage has been reported so far, with only a couple of cars falling from shelves.

However, she said a thorough damage report will not be available until the electricity supply resumes as the company needs the electricity to run testing programs.

She also said the company has decided to offer discounts to customers. For repair, car owners will get 15 percent discount on the cost of part and 10 percent on labor.