SINGAPORE : Internet and phone services were disrupted in Singapore and the rest of Southeast Asia following Tuesday's earthquake in Taiwan.

The strong earthquake in Taiwan had damaged several undersea cables around the island.

Many internet users had difficulty accessing sites online, especially US sites.

The instant messaging service was also down.

Internet users faced a long wait in downloading information on the internet.

Some e-commerce activities were also affected as a result of problems with internet and telecommunication systems.

Singapore internet service provider StarHub and Southeast Asia's largest telco SingTel say the earthquake caused disruptions to the undersea cables, resulting in slow internet access to some sites.

Both companies say internet traffic diversion and restoration works are currently underway. - CNA /ls

SINGAPORE: Despite the distance, Tuesday night's earthquake in Taiwan made its presence felt in Singapore.

Internet providers StarHub and SingTel say the earthquake caused disruptions to the undersea cables, resulting in slow internet access to some sites.

Both companies say internet traffic diversion and restoration works are currently underway.

SingTel adds that its undersea cable system with Europe was not affected. - CNA/so

HONG KONG: The strong Taiwan earthquake, measuring a magnitude of 7.1, damaged several undersea data cables in the region on Wednesday, jamming up the Internet, a Hong Kong phone operator said.

"Due to the earthquake that hit Taiwan last night, several undersea data cables were damaged," said a spokesman for PCCW, Hong Kong's biggest fixed-line operator.

"Data traffic to Taiwan, Korea, Japan and the United States is affected," he said, adding that the company was diverting the data and monitoring the restoration of the cables.

The spokesman said data capacity has been reduced to 50 percent, and that there had been an upsurge in attempts to accessing the web in the region as people were trying to get information about the quake.

He cautioned that some Internet users in the region could experience congestion over the next several days.

Singapore’s internet providers, StarHub and SingTel, were among those affected, as the incident has resulted in slow internet access.

Both companies said internet traffic diversion and restoration works are currently underway. SingTel added that its undersea cable system with Europe was not affected.

Major telecom operators in Japan also said damaged cables had jammed up phone lines and slowed down the Internet there.

NTT Communications, the internet and long-distance call business of Japan's largest telecom firm Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., said the worst hit were companies.

Some 1,400 toll-free phone lines as well as 84 international lines used internally by companies were affected by the damage to underwater cables, NTT spokesman Tomoyuki Okada said.

"Customers have found difficulty in making international calls and transmitting data," said Satoru Ito, a spokesman for KDDI Corp., one of Japan's major telecommunication companies.

He said the company was still probing the extent of the problem but that communications between Japan and other Asian countries were still running at a slower pace through a backup system.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange, the world's largest bourse outside of New York, was functioning without problems, a spokesman said.

Meanwhile, the Hong Kong stock exchange said it was also working problems although several dealers said they have had problems accessing international news providers for information.

Most of them said they received complaints from customers who used the Internet for prices but the disruption has not affected trading.

"Some of our customers who use the Internet complained that they can't look at stock prices online. That's our main problem," said Jackson Wong, investment manager at Tanrich Securities.

"That has increased our workload because we have customers who keep calling and asking us the prices that we can get from the trading floor but in general our service has not been disrupted much," he said.

Other stock markets in the region appeared to be operating without major problems, with several setting all-time highs as a recent bull run continued.

It is not immediately clear when the damage will be repaired.

An official at Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom Co. (CHT) also reported that the earthquakes have disrupted international phone calls to and from Asian countries.

Fortunately, mobile and domestic phone calls in Taiwan remain unaffected. - AFP/CNA/so

SYDNEY - The disruption to international telecom and Internet services Wednesday caused by a strong earthquake in Taiwan highlight our increasing dependence on high-tech cable systems across the world.

The earthquake, measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale, hit southern Taiwan hard late Tuesday and disturbed several of the massive submarine cables running offshore which link countries in Asia with the United States and beyond.

Analysts said most international telecommunications are now carried by submarine cable, forming a multi-billion dollar network that spans the globe.

Booming demand for increasingly sophisticated services is met by continually adding capacity but as countless users found out on Wednesday, they have become ever more dependent on a system which can be vulnerable at certain key points.

Independent telecommunications analyst Paul Budde said in a report earlier this year that the first undersea cables were laid about 150 years ago to transmit telegrams and they have evolved to reflect changing technology.

The Australia-based analyst said it cost up to 500,000 US dollars a kilometre (1,000 yards) to lay modern cables and recently, there had been an increase in development of submarine infrastructure as demand for broadband Internet and cheap telephone services increased.

"Changes in undersea systems have taken place on a giant scale -- not since the initial building of these networks 150 years ago have we seen such activity, mainly driven by the increase in data traffic.

"Systems that were built as late as 1998 proved to be inadequate for the demand in capacity required a mere 18 months later.

"Within a period of a few short years, there were ... at least 1,000 long-distance carriers and 10,000 ISP (Internet service providers) requiring global connectivity," he said.

The disruption Wednesday was widespread, hitting services in China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong, with knock-on effects elsewhere.

Operators said repairs were underway, with traffic being redirected over other cable systems in the meantime in an effort to ensure some services were available, albeit slower than normal.

- AFP /ls