Internet access in Singapore severely affected by Taiwan quake
I like to respond to this piece of news below. I know a lot of people esp Singaporeans has been affected by the internet slow or no connection. So have I.
A piece of advice: Stop whining....and stop complaining.
Please. There are reported deaths and damages done to homes. These are much more important in life than no internet to surf. Understand that businesses are badly affected. But nothing is more precious than life itself. So people should stop and take a breather.
Just my two cents worth....
SINGAPORE : The earthquake in Taiwan has wrecked havoc online among thousands of internet users in Asia.
Singapore has also been affected - with major online disruptions.
Others in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong were also hit, after the quake damaged several undersea cables around Taiwan.
Service providers say the recovery process will take days, if not weeks.
If you faced difficulty accessing sites especially US-based ones, you were not alone.
Many across Asia faced the same problem too, with a long wait in downloading information from the internet.
The instant messaging service such as MSN Messenger was also down.
The reason - the earthquake off Taiwan on Tuesday night damaged the undersea cables, resulting in slow internet access to some sites.
Taiwan's largest phone company Chung-hwa Telecom said the quake which measured 6.7 on the Richter scale disrupted some 98% of Taiwan's communications capacity with Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong.
Due to the high cost of such submarine cables, most countries co-invest in a common communications infrastructure, and this multi-billion-dollar information superhighway has now been damaged.
But service providers say it's not a complete breakdown, it just takes longer as online traffic is diverted to alternative lines.
SingTel, Southeast Asia's largest telco, says its submarine cables linking the US and Europe are not affected.
But it has set up an operations centre to monitor the situation.
"The extent of damage to the cable is extensive. We are clearly taking this on two fronts - we want to restore service on the damaged cable as soon as possible and at the same time, we are working round the clock with our consortium partners to do the traffic diversions. We think there's a good chance we can restore service as soon as possible," says Choo Pee Hin, director of Network Operations at SingTel.
The earthquake was so massive that even SingTel's backup alternative cables were knocked out.
Telephone facilities in Taiwan were also affected, including overseas calls in and out of Taiwan.
For StarHub, two of its 95 channels on its digital cable service were down since mid-day, and late Wednesday night, one of them, Channel TV5MONDE, resumed service.
"In terms of the breadth of disruption I think the largest impact was on broadband and surfing of overseas sites. It was multiple cables that were impacted and multiple companies in countries who were affected. In fact, I think pretty much everyone is impacted," says Mike Reynolds, head of Integrated Products & Marketing at StarHub.
"And when all the different cables out in the ocean are impacted, the customers will feel it. So getting them back to normal service in the shortest time is what matters."
Other providers like Pacific Internet say connectivity problems may stay for days or even weeks, while repairs are in progress.
But users can expect big improvements over the next few days.
You can still access websites based locally, like the online government portal, which are not affected as traffic does not have to be routed overseas. - CNA /ls
A piece of advice: Stop whining....and stop complaining.
Please. There are reported deaths and damages done to homes. These are much more important in life than no internet to surf. Understand that businesses are badly affected. But nothing is more precious than life itself. So people should stop and take a breather.
Just my two cents worth....
SINGAPORE : The earthquake in Taiwan has wrecked havoc online among thousands of internet users in Asia.
Singapore has also been affected - with major online disruptions.
Others in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong were also hit, after the quake damaged several undersea cables around Taiwan.
Service providers say the recovery process will take days, if not weeks.
If you faced difficulty accessing sites especially US-based ones, you were not alone.
Many across Asia faced the same problem too, with a long wait in downloading information from the internet.
The instant messaging service such as MSN Messenger was also down.
The reason - the earthquake off Taiwan on Tuesday night damaged the undersea cables, resulting in slow internet access to some sites.
Taiwan's largest phone company Chung-hwa Telecom said the quake which measured 6.7 on the Richter scale disrupted some 98% of Taiwan's communications capacity with Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong.
Due to the high cost of such submarine cables, most countries co-invest in a common communications infrastructure, and this multi-billion-dollar information superhighway has now been damaged.
But service providers say it's not a complete breakdown, it just takes longer as online traffic is diverted to alternative lines.
SingTel, Southeast Asia's largest telco, says its submarine cables linking the US and Europe are not affected.
But it has set up an operations centre to monitor the situation.
"The extent of damage to the cable is extensive. We are clearly taking this on two fronts - we want to restore service on the damaged cable as soon as possible and at the same time, we are working round the clock with our consortium partners to do the traffic diversions. We think there's a good chance we can restore service as soon as possible," says Choo Pee Hin, director of Network Operations at SingTel.
The earthquake was so massive that even SingTel's backup alternative cables were knocked out.
Telephone facilities in Taiwan were also affected, including overseas calls in and out of Taiwan.
For StarHub, two of its 95 channels on its digital cable service were down since mid-day, and late Wednesday night, one of them, Channel TV5MONDE, resumed service.
"In terms of the breadth of disruption I think the largest impact was on broadband and surfing of overseas sites. It was multiple cables that were impacted and multiple companies in countries who were affected. In fact, I think pretty much everyone is impacted," says Mike Reynolds, head of Integrated Products & Marketing at StarHub.
"And when all the different cables out in the ocean are impacted, the customers will feel it. So getting them back to normal service in the shortest time is what matters."
Other providers like Pacific Internet say connectivity problems may stay for days or even weeks, while repairs are in progress.
But users can expect big improvements over the next few days.
You can still access websites based locally, like the online government portal, which are not affected as traffic does not have to be routed overseas. - CNA /ls
posted by singaporeplayboy at 1:36 PM
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