Friday, December 29, 2006

Taiwan quake brings internet almost to a standstill

KUALA LUMPUR: Internet users were a frustrated lot yesterday. Some could not access websites while others found it extremely slow.

It was the same throughout most of Asia as telecommunications lines were disrupted after undersea cables were damaged by an earthquake in Taiwan.

International telephone calls to countries such as Japan, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Korea and the United States were also affected.

For the day-to-day Internet user, the interruption in services meant that work almost came to a standstill.

Graphic designer Josh Lim, 23, said he noticed the slower access early this morning when he tried to access his Streamyx account.

"Some sites could not even be accessed," said Lim, who is also co-founder of a support group for broadband users, called RedesignMalaysia.com.

According to the website, 26 telecommunication companies were affected.

"We really could not do much," said Lim, adding that he and his colleagues ended up cleaning and rearranging the office instead.

Student K. Kugan said: "I couldn’t even get onto the world wide web. My local area network connection was fine but I could not get online at all.

"It was very frustrating. I could not access the net last night too. I hope they repair it fast."

TMNet Sdn Bhd explained in a statement yesterday that Internet users in Malaysia and other parts of Asia might experience some delay when assessing content and websites hosted outside of Malaysia, especially in the US, Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea and Europe.

TMNet said the earthquake damaged the APCN2 (Asia Pacific Cable Network 2) submarine cable between Shantou, China, and Tanshui, Taiwan, and between Lantau, Hong Kong, and Chongming, China.

The company has diverted traffic through other back-up links to reduce the traffic congestion.

In a statement, Telecom Malaysia said it was working closely to undertake repair works so that telephone services to affected countries would be restored. However, it said it was unable to determine when the services could be restored.

Meanwhile, Jaring chief executive officer Dr Mohamed Awang Lah told the New Straits Times yesterday that not all of Jaring’s services were interrupted.

"It is only a partial interruption with slower access to overseas sites."

MohamedAwang said all Internet service providers in the region were affected as they were linked with the undersea data cables off the coast of Taiwan.

He said it would take a few weeks to repair the cable but could not say when services would be fully restored.

A Maxis spokesperson said some customers had difficulty making international calls to the US, Canada, Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

"Customers roaming in these countries also had problems calling home."

She said Maxis’ roaming services in the US, Canada and Korea had been restored to normal while roaming services in Japan and Taiwan were being restored.


NO JOKES SIAL!1 day without a Internet can make me die.. huh, sayang i miss you :(

Take from NSTP :)

Posted by paopao at 2:31 AM

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