Taiwan quake disrupts RP Internet, telephone connections

[Zeus]

Taiwan quake disrupts RP Internet, telephone connections



By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 03:40pm (Mla time) 12/27/2006


(UPDATE) A "fiber break" in the major submarine cables linking the Philippines to the international network caused a nationwide disruption in Internet and telephone services, local telecommunications company said Wednesday.
The Philippines' links to the Internet were damaged following a 7.1 magnitude earthquake that struck Taiwan early Wednesday.
"These are major submarine cables linking the Philippines to the United States. We said earlier that it was only the Internet but apparently it has affected international voice calls," John Rojo, head of corporate communications of Bayantel, in a telephone interview.
Rojo said this major service interruption has affected its own service nationwide. But local Internet and telephone traffic have remained stable.
"We're now working on re-routing our international traffic and coordinating on the restoration of our international services. This is what we're focusing on right now," the telecom executive said.
Rojo added that as of 3 p.m., 90 percent of Bayantel's international traffic have been operational.
The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. and Smart Communications also confirmed the impact of the Taiwan earthquake on their own Internet and telephone services in a joint statement.
"The international cable facilities being utilized by PLDT and Smart have suffered major cable breaks due to the recent earthquake that took place near Taiwan. As a result, IDD (international direct dialing) and broadband Internet services are currently intermittent. Domestic PLDT & Smart voice and data services are operating normally," the companies said.
PLDT added that the international consortium operating these submarine cable systems "has already 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 and Smart said.
The major downtime started around 11 a.m., Wednesday, Manila time. It lasted for about one hour.
Wilson Chua, Internet Service Provider owner, said that there was "massive damage" in the international links.
He said that APCN1, APCN2, EAC, and C2C were affected in the earthquake. These are international optical fiber submarine cables linking the Philippines to international networks.
Chua said his connection to at least four major telecommunications firms -- Globe Telecommunications, BayanTel, Digitel, and the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. -- had been down for about an hour.
Officials of Digitel, and Globe could not be reached for comment as of posting time.
Internet cafes in Manila visited by INQUIRER.net were closed due to the service interruptions this morning.
The Internet services are back to normal in Metro Manila as of posting time, but connections speeds are still slow and intermittent.
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck the southern Taiwanese town of Hengchun Wednesday, killing two and triggering a regional tsunami alert.

[NazQ]

hmm.. kaya siguro nagloloko yung internet dito sa office kaninang lunch time.

[wakin]

partially affected ang company namin nito.

[Zeus]

Oo nga e, down mga systems kanina ngayon meron na, pero mabagal

[BlueBimmer]

kaya pala down kanina..
buti naayos agad

[larshell]

Bilis din maayos. Buti nalang.

[1D4LV]

yup. we are on our backup connection right now. 64 kbps compared to the 1.2 mbps that we normally use.

and we still cannot access the websites that are located in the USA. medyo matatagalan siguro ito bago mag normalize.

[tsupermario]

hehe i was privately cursing PLDT kanina, that one they didn't deserve

[ehw953]

kami kagabi pa nagloloko... kala ko may virus na pc ko hehe

[gearspeed]

Kaya pala ang bagal ng internet ngayon.

Ito biglang lumabas sa akin ngayon lang nung nag log in ako sa friendster

Greetings from Tri-Isys Internet!

We regret to inform you that our Internet service is currently experiencing slow browsing:

Service Outage Time Start: 11:40h local time, December 27, 2006
Service Outage expected to be Restored: (no definite time)
Expected Total Outage Duration: (no definite time)

Service Outage Details: Several International cable facilities – Including the system that our MAIN PROVIDER is using, specifically APCN2 and its secondary route – have experienced major cable breaks due to the recent earthquake in Taiwan measuring 7.2 in the Richter scale. As a result of this, majority of our services with international connectivity have been seriously affected and are currently unavailable. Presently, the international consortium operating the cable system has already mobilized cable ships to repair the affected segments of APCN 1 & 2, EAC, SEMEWE and GP-China US; C2C and restoration work will be conducted round the clock

We apologize for the inconvenience caused by the outage.Thank you for your kind understanding.

Cordially,
Technical Support Team
Inter-Island Information Systems, Inc.