Companies Racing To Repair Earthquake-Damaged Undersea Cables
The Wall Street Journal reports:
BEIJING—Asia's major telecom operators scrambled Monday to eliminate the impact on their operations from damage to several submarine cables following the massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
Many operators were reporting some disruptions in Internet access, though the partial restoration of service was accomplished by rerouting traffic over undamaged cables and via satellites.
About half of the existing cables running across the Pacific are damaged and "a lot of people are feeling a little bit of slowing down of Internet traffic going to the United States," said Bill Barney, chief executive of Hong Kong-based cable-network operator Pacnet. He declined to name the damaged cables operated by other companies, but said Pacnet's cable system connecting Japan to the U.S. isn't damaged so far.
Most international Internet-data and voice phone calls are transmitted as pulses of light via the hundreds of undersea fiber-optic cables. The cables, which can cost hundreds of millions of dollars, are typically owned by consortia of telecom companies, who share costs and capacity. While the clusters of glass fibers are enclosed in protective material, they remain vulnerable to undersea earthquakes, fishing trawlers and ship anchors. There are also many choke points around the globe, where a number of cables converge.
While the extent of the damage to undersea cables is unclear and financial losses unknown, operators said they are undergoing an inspection and looking to expedite restoration.
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