Taiwan’s 6.4-magnitude earthquake disrupted communications
The immediate effects of the 6.4-magnitude earthquake that struck southern Taiwan early Thursday, March 4, 2010, was the disruption of communications and internet services as it damaged four undersea cables in six different places. Services were disrupted for part of Thursday and Friday. The quake’s epicenter was in the same mountainous area of Kaohsiung County that suffered the brunt of the damage from Typhoon Morakot that killed about 700 people last August 2009.
At Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan’s biggest telecommunications company, workers were scrambling to fix undersea fiber-optic telecommunications cables to prevent service disruptions around Asia. Global communications and Internet service on all networks have already been restored, mainly by rerouting service onto undamaged cables.
Services on the SWM-3 (Southeast Asia – Middle East – Western Europe 3) cable between Taiwan and China’s Guangdong Province was down between 5:26 PM and 8:00 PM on Thursday. Services were rerouted and restored.
The CUCN (China, U.S. Cable Network) line to China, the APCN (Asia Pacific Cable Network) cable from southern Taiwan to Hong Kong, the APCN (Asia Pacific Cable Network) cable line between Taiwan and Singapore, and the FLAG (Fiber Optic Link Around The Globe) North Asia Loop (FNAL) were all damaged and resulted in service disruptions at different parts of Thursday evening and Friday morning. Services have been restored on all cables by rerouting.
Chunghwa Telecom is well seasoned to deal with such catastrophes because Taiwan is often battered by typhoons and earthquakes that can knock these undersea cables out of commission. Last August 2009, deep sea landslides caused by Typhoon Morakot damaged at least three undersea fiber-optic telecommunications cables and disrupted three others causing communications and Internet service disruptions throughout Asia.
Consumers worldwide, however, may feel the effects of this earthquake in the form of higher prices for LCD screens and chips because the quake stopped work at LCD and chip factories in the Tainan Science Park, including at Chi Mei Optoelectronics, the fourth biggest LCD panel maker in the world (accounted for 13.3 percent of the global supply of LCD panels as of January) and at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chip maker. Fortunately, the period from March to June is considered a slower time as orders generally fall.
Video from Russia Today (March 4, 2010) – “Powerful 6.4 earthquake rocks Taiwan, no tsunami alert issued”
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