The No. 2 undersea cable connecting Taiwan proper and Lienchiang County (Matsu) broke at multiple points yesterday, causing a complete outage, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today.
The ministry requested that Chunghwa Telecom, which owns and operates all 10 domestic undersea cables in Taiwan, activate its backup microwave system so that communications can continue as normal, it said.
Undersea cables are Taiwan’s “digital lifeline,” transmitting electricity and information to offshore islands and other countries.
Photo: Taipei Times
There are three undersea cables connecting Taiwan with Matsu, although the No. 2 and No. 3 cables are the most heavily used.
There were breakages in the No. 2 cable on Oct. 3 last year and on Jan. 22 due to age, but other functioning cables were able to maintain communications between Taiwan and Matsu, the ministry said.
The cable, which had already been scheduled for repairs, experienced another break yesterday, resulting in a complete outage due to an increased number of faults, Chunghwa Telecom reported to the National Communications and Cyber Security Center.
The No. 3 cable was completely severed on Jan. 15.
The ministry has coordinated with the cable repair ship to expedite repairs of both cables, it said.
Repairs on the No. 3 and No. 2 cables are expected to be completed by the end of this month and next month respectively, Chunghwa Telecom said.
Activating the backup microwave system would allow communication and Internet services to continue as normal, the ministry said.
The microwave bandwidth of 12.6Gbps, which is higher than the usual peak traffic of 9.5Gbps in Matsu, would prioritize communication services for government agencies, banks, hospitals and other critical infrastructure, the ministry said.
This would ensure that essential services such as ATM withdrawals, credit card transactions and online transactions would not be interrupted while the cables are being repaired, it said.
The ministry also requested the Executive Yuan designate the Taiwan-Matsu undersea cables as critical infrastructure, it said.
To improve communication stability between offshore islands, the government would build asynchronous satellite stations and subsidize telecom operators to increase microwave capacity and construct a No. 4 Taiwan-Matsu cable, the ministry said.
The No. 4 cable is expected to be completed by the middle of next year, Chunghwa Telecom said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
RSS