Repairs to submarine cables off Japan’s coasts are underway as operators rush to mitigate damage caused by the earthquake that hit the country last Friday.
Pacnet’s chief technology officer Wilfred Kwan told Telecom Asia the disaster last week had impacted the company’s EAC cable near Ajigaura, near the quake’s epicenter. “Restoration across alternative paths is continuing with significant portion of services restored,” Kwan continued, adding cable ships had been mobilized. Kwan was however unable to confirm when the ships would reach the cable repair areas.
Meanwhile, Pacific Crossing, a subsidiary of NTT Communications, said in a statement on its website that connectivity on the PC-1 and PC-1 W cables had been interrupted as a result of the earthquake. The statement added Pacific Crossing was currently inspecting the extent of damage and starting restoration works.
Telegeography analyst Stephan Beckert told the Wall Street Journal in an email interview that Korea Telecom had reported a segment of its Japan-US Cable Network damaged. Beckert further said all the damaged cables lay north of Tokyo, near the Ajigaura and Kitaibaraki landing stations.
Telstra International said in a statement that the firm had experienced 'some impact' due to damaged portions on the JUS and APCN2. The company was able to 'fully recover all services' using the TGN, CHUS and AAG cable systems for traffic over the Pacific.
This information comes to light in addition to earlier reports on damage to the APCN2.
Operators in Singapore said normal service levels had been restored over the weekend.
Leong Peng Ham, Starhub’s vice president of integrated network engineering, told Telecom Asia that the firm was one of many operators affected by damage to the undersea cables. “We have successfully diverted the affected Internet traffic to other submarine cable systems in less than 24 hours, with Internet connectivity to overseas websites generally returning to normal levels since last Saturday afternoon,” Leong said.
A SingTel spokesperson revealed no SingTel infrastructure of equipment had been destroyed or impacted by the disaster. “The small percentage of Internet traffic flow that was affected by the earthquake was restored within 12 hours via alternate cable systems,” the spokesperson said.
Updated 16 March 2011, 6.00pm, GMT +8: Details on Telstra International's traffic diversions