Five of the seven damaged cables are “partially repaired,” Man-ho Au, director general of Hong Kong’s Office of the Telecommunications Authority, or Ofta, said at a briefing Monday. “Disruptions to Hong Kong are now minimal,” he said.

A 6.7 magnitude earthquake that hit the Luzon Straits off the coast of Taiwan on Dec. 26 damaged all seven submarine cable systems passing through the area, causing disruptions to Internet and telephone connections throughout Asia.

Ofta had expected operators to finish repairs on the first of seven cables in the middle of this month, the agency’s assistant director Chan Tze-yee said on Jan. 2. The regulator was forced to put back the estimate to the “second half of this month” due to bad weather, a Jan. 15 statement said.

On Jan. 24 Hong Kong’s Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology Joseph WP Wong told the city’s legislative body that repair work on the damaged cables will last until mid-February, according to a transcript of his remarks posted on the government’s Web site.

Internet connections in Asia remain the world’s slowest, at 380 milliseconds, nearly six times the response time for connections in North America, according to the latest figures from Internet Traffic Report, which monitors the speed of global Web traffic.

Cables damaged in last month’s earthquake include the Sea-Me- We3, owned by a group including Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. and France Telecom SA, and APCN2, which is owned by a group including China Unicom Ltd. and Telekom Malaysia Bhd.

Subscribe to The China Post and save.  Click hereSharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 800 characters max

Receive China Post promos

Respond to this email