http://www.bworldonline.com/BW081309/content.php?id=042

[SIZE="5"]PLDT, Smart disrupted as undersea cables break[/SIZE]

CABLE BREAKS due to bad weather have affected the services of Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) Co.

Multiple cable faults that occurred yesterday morning between China and Taiwan, and Malaysia and Singapore have crippled mobile unit Smart Communications, Inc.’s international and broadband services.

The cable cuts are within the Asia-Pacific Cable Network (APCN) 2, a submarine telecommunications cable linking several countries in the Asia-Pacific region with local landing point in Batangas Bay in Batangas City.

The APCN 2 is a 19,000-kilometer-long fiber optic cable system that connects China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Taiwan.

Smart Communications said its wireless subscribers may have difficulties making or receiving overseas calls, and sending or receiving text messages abroad.

Also, the "Smart Bro" and "Smart Bro Plug-It" services may encounter "slow or intermittent," and difficulty in accessing Web sites hosted overseas.

"We are still awaiting word on the cause of the fiber cuts. In the meantime, Smart would like to assure the general public that close coordination is ongoing with our network counterparts abroad to aid in restoring normal services as soon as possible," Smart Communications said in a statement.

PLDT said "the PLDT Group is now re-routing traffic to other cable systems and coordinating with partners in affected international cable systems to restore full capacity as soon as possible."

In December 2006, the Philippines’ Internet connection was disrupted by an earthquake in Taiwan. It took less than a week to fix the disruption.

Smart Communications has over 38.5 million subscribers with 1.2 million broadband users. PLDT has 510,000 broadband subscribers and 1.8 million fixed-line customers.