Disaster watch: services disrupted in 4 countries

Dylan Bushell-Embling
05 Oct 2009
00:00

The natural disasters which have been plaguing Asia have left telecom services disrupted in the Philippines, Indonesia and the Samoan Island area.

Typhoon Pepeng has knocked out telecom services in parts of the Philippines, marking the second disaster to impact services on the archipelago within weeks.

The province of Cagayan has been hardest hit by the typhoon, which has also killed at least 29 people. Telecom services are intermittent at best throughout the area, according to the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC). There are also reports of power failure across many municipalities.

The typhoon hit before the damage to telecom services caused by last month's tropical storm Odnoy had even been repaired. Philippine mobile operator Smart said on Friday that it had only restored 98% of the cell sites affected.

But the carrier added that it was making preparations to deal with the damage caused by Pepeng.

Meanwhile, some telecom services remain disrupted in Indonesia after Wednesday's massive earthquake.

The quake, which struck the Sumatran city of Pedang, could have killed up to 1,100 people, according to UN estimates. Electricity has also been cut.

But a massive relief effort has been mounted, with direct aid coming from Singapore, Australia, France and the UN, and tens of millions of dollars being donated from governments and citizens around the world, Straits Timessaid.

The earthquake is believed to have been the trigger for a follow-on tsunami which hit Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga, severely disrupting telecom services there and killing at least 200 people.

Australian operator Telstra said it would offer free calls to the affected regions of Indonesia and American Samoa, but urged customers to keep calls brief to avoid congestion.

Networks in Samoa and Tonga are so congested that Telstra has been told not to increase call volumes to these areas, but will advise customers when the situation changes, the company said.

Telecom NZ wrapped up its own free call offer on Friday, has donated 200 mobile devices to the red cross and has offered to provide on-the-ground technical assistance if needed in Samoa, the company said.

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