Fergie's Tech Blog

Networks Disrupted By Taiwan Earthquake Struggle To Recover

W. David Gardner writes on InformationWeek:

An undersea earthquake struck off the coast of Taiwan on Wednesday, complicating efforts to repair six submerged cables that were severed by a stronger quake nearly four weeks ago.

The most recent temblor measured 5.0 on the Richter scale. Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau reported no immediate damage or casualties. This after a magnitude-6.7 earthquake killed two people and crippled the region's network traffic on December 26.

The events are likely to have a long-term impact as telecommunications firms gradually come to grips with the damage, one observer said.

"We're heading towards the fourth week after the earthquake and not a single cable has been repaired," said Todd Underwood of Internet and communications traffic monitoring firm Renesys in an interview Wednesday. "It's a tough situation " deep water, rough seas, and not many boats available."

posted by Fergie @ 1/17/2007 03:45:00 PM