Taiwan is to add two international and three domestic undersea communications cables as part of its efforts to strengthen communications resilience, Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-jing (林宜敬) said yesterday.
Lin was briefing President William Lai (賴清德) and other participants on the ministry's efforts to bolster the nation's communications and financial security at the sixth meeting of the Presidential Office's Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Committee.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The new undersea cables would be hardened with an "armor-like" protective layer, so they would not be easily damaged, Lin said.
"We must ensure that our Internet remains connected during typhoons, earthquakes or any other emergencies," he said.
As of press time last night, the ministry had not replied to a query on when the planned communications cables would be completed.
Taiwan has reported several instances of alleged sabotage of underwater communications cables by Chinese civilian vessels in recent years.
In response, the legislature passed a series of legal amendments earlier this month mandating prison terms for saboteurs and the confiscation of vessels and tools used.
The planned undersea cables are part of the ministry's "three-dimensional defensive communications network" initiative, which aims to strengthen Taiwan's communication from land, air and sea, Lin said.
The initiative also includes the addition of an Amazon low-earth-orbit satellite constellation and the inauguration of a high-orbit geosynchronous satellite being built by US manufacturer Astranis, he said.
On land, the ministry is to plan disaster-resilient base stations, expand its existing fleet of vehicles with satcom-on-the-move capability and procure a large number of mobile diesel generators, he said.
Lin said the ministry learned during typhoons over the past year that cellphone connectivity issues are most commonly caused by power outages at cell sites, and that the problem can be effectively solved with mobile generators.
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