Hong Kong authorities struggle to restore Internet connectivity

Businesses and consumers in Hong Kong have been struggling with very slow or completely unavailable Internet services following damage to undersea cables caused by an earthquake on 26 December. The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) issued a statement yesterday saying that while the situation is improving, repairs won’t be complete until at least the end of January.

The OFTA statement reads as follows (verbatim):

OFTA's Update on 3 January on the Restoration of External Telecommunications Services

The following is an update by the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) on the restoration of external telecommunications services today (3 January) subsequent to the damages to submarine cables caused by the earthquakes near Taiwan on 26 December :

Latest Service Status and Advice to the Public
OFTA has been closely liaising with network operators and Internet service providers (ISPs) since businesses resumed normal yesterday (2 January) after the Christmas and New Year holidays. During the peak period approaching the mid-night last night, the access to overseas web sites was observed to be slower than normal but it was basically acceptable. The situation this morning (3 January) was more or less normal.

However, when the stock market in the United States resumes business around 10 pm (Hong Kong time) tonight, traffic is expected to increase and may bring about slower response or congestion.

During the restoration period, the public are advised to minimise non-essential visits to overseas web sites, uploading or downloading large files to/from these web sites, and other non-essential activities which demand large bandwidth over international connections, such as playing on-line games and P2P file sharing.

Over the past week there has been continued improvement in the access to the Internet. The major Internet service providers (ISPs) have recovered about 80% of their international connection capacity. IDD and roaming services have almost resumed normal.

Repairing Status
According to the latest schedule, one damaged submarine cable system will first be brought back to normal operation by the middle of this month. This should significantly improve the situation. The repair of the other damaged systems is expected to be completed progressively by the end of January or the beginning of February 2007, if the environment and the weather permit.

•Date: 3rd January 2007 • Region: SE Asia •Type: Article •Topic: Telecoms continuity
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