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Undersea telecom cables fully fixed by late February


Three of six undersea cables used by local telecommunications firms that were damaged in the strong earthquake off Taiwan in late December have been repaired but the rest won’t be restored until the latter part of February. Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), in a letter to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), reported that three undersea cables were restored between January 11 to 18 but repairs on three others won’t be completed until February 21. The 7.1 magnitude earthquake that struck off Taiwan last December 26 severely disrupted telecommunications and Internet services in many parts of Asia, including the Philippines. PLDT reported that damage to the cables affected just under 31 percent of voice traffic, 51 percent of data service and over 41 percent of Internet-related services. “Repair of cable systems such as SMW3, and two China-US has been completed on January 11, 13 and 18," PLDT first vice president Alfredo Carrera said. “The repair of other segment faults of the affected cable systems will continue and is expected to be completed on a staggered basis up to February 21," Carrera added. PLDT earlier said the affected cables would be repaired between January 14 and 31. On the other hand, Globe spokesman Jones Campos told the NTC said most of the repair have been completed but there won’t be full restoration is expected to happen in the middle of next month. “Total or 100 percent could be mid-February as per international consortium, depending on weather and other controllable factors," Campos said. PLDT said it has utilized the Guam-Philippines cable, the only Philippines-terminating undersea cable unaffected by the earthquake. Arrangements have also been made with other foreign carriers to provide capacities in order to extend the link from Guam to the US and Japan . Smart Communications Inc. and Pilipino Telephone Corp. earlier said that repair of the cable stations affecting their networks should have been completed by January 22. Bayan Telecommunications Inc., meanwhile, said overseas calls from BayanTel lines are unaffected and stable. On the call centers, about 90 percent of BayanTel’s call center client base has stable links for international calls. Restoration of service for the remaining 10 percent will be done soon. BayanTel said its total backhaul capacity for international Internet access was reduced by 10 to 15 percent due to the fiber break in the APCN and APCN2 cable systems. Digitel Telecommunications Philippines, Inc. said it restored 100 percent of its data and Internet circuits after it re-routed communications traffic through another cable network. -GMANews.TV

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