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| Science & Technology |
| Earthquake-Damaged Asian Networks Will Be Slow To Recover |
| 2006-12-31 |
| EFL Communications facilities damaged by Tuesday's earthquake off Taiwan are gradually being repaired, but it will likely be at least a few weeks before communications can return to normal, according to Renesys, an Internet and communications traffic-monitoring firm. "This isn't going to get fixed quickly," said Todd Underwood in an interview Thursday. "At least six major cable systems are still out, so we're not seeing a lot of recovery." The earthquake recorded a magnitude of 6.7 and its epicenter was pinpointed in the ocean off Taiwan. Almost immediately communications among several Asian and Pacific nations were disrupted -- in some cases knocking out connections entirely, and in other instances slowing traffic to a crawl. Cable service providers quickly pressed backup systems and approaches into service. Noting that special repair ships must fix the damaged cables, Underwood said it could take a week to fix each cable. "It's not like there are six [repair] boats ready to act," he said. I'm glad the Rantburg server is here in the U.S., otherwise I'd be having withdrawl symtoms. |
| Posted by:Chuck |
| #3 FWIW I helped load some of those (fiber) cable systems onto boats when I was at UNH in the mid 80's (Simplex / Tyco Labs, Newington, NH; three for the Atlantic, one for the Pacific. Unloading the older creosote soaked ones, not so pleasant. |
| Posted by: Raj 2006-12-31 11:00 |
| #2 The upside, of course, is a reduction in spam and ssh dictionary attacks. |
| Posted by: badanov 2006-12-31 06:22 |
| #1 Good for you Chuck. In M'sia one has to do the "World Wide Wait", as things crawl - even when using a proxy server either from Ozzieland or India. Looking at the submarine cables layout in the Pacific: almost all of them go through Japan - Taiwan - then China before South east Asia. One reason being apparently that it is the shortest besides. biz-wise. the "hottest" route. Not really an efficient "Net", when it isn't spread out. |
| Posted by: unicorn 2006-12-31 06:16 |
