If you had difficulty accessing this blog today, or for that matter connecting to the internet, here’s the reason:
RP Internet, phone calls affected
Telecommunications in the Philippines, along with its neighbors, were severely disrupted on Wednesday after earthquakes off Taiwan damaged undersea cables, slowing Internet services and hindering financial transactions, particularly in the currency market.
International telephone traffic was restricted from some countries and Internet access slowed to a crawl.
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. said its Internet service was intermittent and international phone calls had been disrupted, but domestic calls and its Smart mobile phone service were working normally.
PLDT said the international consortium operating the affected cable systems has mobilized cable ships to repair the affected segments, and restoration work is being conducted round the clock.
“In the meantime, we are maximizing the use of available international linkages and finding alternative routes to hasten restoration of normal service,” PLDT said.
Globe Telecommunication Co. said it is doing everything possible to restore fully its services to Taiwan, Japan, Korea and the US which were partially affected.
BayanTel said that as of yesterday afternoon, 90 percent of its international traffic for voice and Internet services that were affected by fiber break in submarine cables were already operational.
Digitel Corp. said only a few international voice circuits were affected in its international cable network.
“Our data and internet services have been fully restored,” Digitel said.
The biggest quake, measured by Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau at magnitude 6.7 and at magnitude 7.1 by the US Geological Survey, struck off the island’s southern coast at 8:26 p.m. on Tuesday — the second anniversary of a massive earthquake and tsunami that left more than 230,000 people in Asia either dead or missing.
Further quakes through the evening in Taiwan were measured at up to magnitude 7.0 by the US agency.
Two people were killed and 42 injured when three buildings collapsed in the earthquakes.
The two dead were caught in the collapse of a furniture factory in the southern city of Hengchun, where eight people, including four children, were trapped for a time, Taiwan’s National Fire Agency said in a statement.
South Korea’s top fixed-line and broadband service provider, KT Corp, said six submarine cables were knocked out by Tuesday night’s earthquakes.
“Twenty-seven of our customers were hit, including banks and churches,” a KT spokesman said. “It is not known yet when we can fully restore the services.”
The foreign exchange market suffered in Seoul.
“Trading of the Korean won has mostly halted due to the communication problem,” said a dealer at one domestic bank.
Some disruption was also reported in the important Tokyo currency market but the EBS system that handles much dollar/yen trading appeared to be working.
Global information company Reuters Group Plc said users of its services in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan had been affected, although dealing services were restored in Tokyo during the afternoon.
In India, back offices and call centers experienced some difficulty, but industry officials said the full extent of the problem would not be known until later in the day when data and voice traffic peaked during European and US business hours.
State Secret
In China, financial markets worked normally but China Telecommunications Group, the country’s biggest fixed-line telephone operator and parent of China Telecom Corp., said the Internet had been badly disrupted.
Phone links and dedicated business lines had also been affected to some degree,” it said.
Officials declined to give further details. “Undersea communications cables fall in the area of state secrets,” said a ministry of communications official in Beijing.
Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan’s biggest telecoms carrier, said two of four major undersea cables out of Taiwan had been affected, initially cutting more than half its international telecommunications capacity.
Calls to Southeast Asia were the worst affected, with less than 10 percent going through at noon— an improvement from the morning, when less than 2 percent succeeded.
KDDI Corp., Japan’s second-largest telecoms company, said communications along submarine cables out of Japan went through Taiwan before reaching Southeast Asian countries, which was leading to disruption, but there were alternative lines.
Slow Internet
PCCW, Hong Kong’s main fixed-line telecoms provider, said several undersea cables it partly owned were damaged. “Data transfer is down by half,” a spokeswoman said.
Both Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel), Southeast Asia’s top phone company, and local rival StarHub Ltd., said Internet services were slow.
But SingTel said traffic was being diverted and repair work was in progress, adding: “Our submarine cables linking to Europe and the US are not affected.” – Myla Iglesias and Reuters
Mother Earth is getting older and recharging. We should respect the environment for our own sakes. A primary reason why Al Gore should become US president, he’s the only one among leaders who cares so much about the future of Mother Nature.
Si Glueria Pidal ang gusto kong maging unang biktima ng hagupit ng kalikasan sa susunod.
Judging from the unabated postings here at Ellen’ blog, it seems there’s no problem with the internet. In my case, there’s no letup in my receiving text messages from North America, Europe, Middle East, nearby Singapore and Australia. Long distance and overseas calls are similarly not a problem.
Or it may have happened while I’m sleeping. Siempre, magpapahinga rin tayo sa addiction reading and sometimes
posting here at Ate Ellen’s.
Maybe Asia is using internet satellite transmission via Telstar, Interstar and Agila 2.
Salamat naman walang tsunami. Ang napinsala mga buwayang lumalamon sa laman ng mga may cellphone. There was a time reported na kinita ng mga yan 7 billion pesos in one month tapos tax exempt daw sila.
Ano bang nangyari doon sa Pinoy executives na dinampot ng FBI sa Hawaii dahil pati yung mga kampanya ng Kano dinidinggoy nila.
Let’s not be surprised at all with all these earthquakes and calamaties. It’s all prophesied in the Holy Scriptures.
I had difficulty early yesterday. I couldn’t login to the NY Stock Exchange online trading, no updates were coming in. At 3:00 a.m. This blog was inaccessible. So was Yahoo’s portal. And YouTube, too. I even had to go to SevenEleven at 4:00 a.m. to buy dial-up cards but no improvement. I did not have problems, however, with the Daily Tribune site which kept me busy until Ellen’s blog came online at about 6:00 a.m. Akala ko na-terrorist attack na ang internet. Anniversary kasi ng CPP-NPA the day before.
Ang alam ko, bukod sa Taiwan-Hawaii cables, naka-link rin ang Pinas sa internet backbone through the Singapore-Hawaii route.
Any expert information?
Ellen,
Thank you for the information.Nagtataka ako kung bakit di ako makatawag sa cellphone ng family ko.Sobra naman ang telecommunication company sa bansa natin,dapat ayusin nila agad,ang laki ng kinikita nila sa subscribers kaya dapat kaagad nilang ayusin.Magbabagong taon na,syimpre kami na andito sa ibang bansa,tatawag sa aming mga pamilya.Nakakalungkot masyado,buong araw akong tumatawag,di ko sila makontak.
dapat sa tapat lamang ng malakanyang nagkaroon ng ertkweyk intensiti 10 at nilamon ng lupa ang bahay na bato. natapos na sana ang malalagim na araw na inihahasik ng baliw na babaeng mukhang dagang ayaw umalis sa kanyang lungga!
Mayroong G-P-T-(Guam-Philippines-Taiwan) backbone ang isang telecomms company ang dating BAN group – meron din itong IGF facilities.
Dati rin akong nakapag-trainee(OJT) sa SWIFT facilities ng nasabing kompanya ng telepono.
Sayang ang kompanyang ito pinagsamantalahan lang ng mga buwitre.
Amazing, Ellen, this piece of information that frankly I find really ridiculous—the earthquake in Taiwan having that effect on communication in the Philippines.
Japan, for that matter is much nearer to Taiwan, and despite the possibility of a Tsunami due to such natural calamity, I have not heard of our communication over there being affected by the Taiwan earthquake. Ang dami naman kapalpakan.
I have not accessed your blog for 24 hours because I have been busy doing my last minute shopping, etc. as I am preparing to go back to Japan. The only time I did have difficulty getting to your blog was when you over-exceeded your bandwidth that I also find incredible as I have never had the same experience after the upgrading of our access systems in Japan.
My sister here in the USA is still using DSL (unlimited access) while most households in Japan are now accessing the Internet via fiber optics called in Japan as “hikari fiber.”
And yet, the Great Switik brags about Philippine progress (kuno) under her bogus reign. Hindi pa ba nagsawa ang mga pilipino sa kasinungalingan ng taong ito. For the past 6 years, this idiot has told more lies than even perhaps the father of lies and deceit her PIGs have boasted to be what they are legions of. 😡
Yuko, there’s nothing unusual with exceeeding my bandwidth. It’s because of the dramatic increase of visitors the past two months, the bandwidth level that I got is no longer enough.I was informed about it by the administrator when it reached 80 per cent as early as Dec. 18 but I thought it could reach end of the month because it’s holidays and people would be busy with Christmas.
But I was pleasantly mistaken. Do you know that the past weeks, number of visits per day reached as high as 10,000?
It’s good news actually. The administrator has now upgraded the bandwidth of this blog.
Wow Ellen. Itong blog mo ang tunay na Wowoweeee! Baka magising ka na lang isang umaga at number one blog na ito. Or number one na nga?
Visits per day reached as high as 10,000! Unbelievable indeed.
If we translate this more than a million hits into a physical protest in Mendiola or Luneta, TKO si Glueria.
E ano kung iyong ilang bumibisita ay pro-Glueria na nagmomonitor. A million is a million! Malay natin na baka sa kababasa nila sa blogs ay unti-unti na sila ay nahahatak na natin sa ating side.
But I’m happy, well- intentioned bloggers are here contributing whatever they can to force Glueria out of her stolen thrown.
Mabuhay ka Ellen, Mabuhay ang Blog, Mabuhay ang lahat na Bloggers! Takutin at murahin pa natin ang tiyanak na nagkukunwaring pangulo!
Thanks to all of you, Chi.
By the way, the most number of traffic/visits come from the U.S. Kasama ka na doon. Next is the Philippines.