(Associated Press via NewsEdge) Replacing undersea cables damaged by an earthquake off Taiwan will take until the end of February, Japanese communications companies said, as the region struggled to fully restore phone and Internet service more than three weeks after the temblor.
The magnitude 7.1 quake of December 26 snapped undersea cables near Taiwan, disrupting phone and Internet communications across a large part of Asia as companies scrambled to reroute traffic through satellites and undamaged cables.
NTT Communications, the international unit of Japan's largest telecommunications company, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone, said in a statement that it had restored Internet, data connection and telephone services to near pre-quake levels by rerouting connections and collaborating with other carriers.
But replacing the damaged cables was expected to take until the end of February, and international callers could still face disruptions during peak times until then, according to NTT Communications spokesman Tei Gordon.
'The quake occurred in probably the most congested area of cabling, which is what has really magnified the problem,' Gordon said.
Another Japanese telecommunications company, KDDI, said services had been restored to near pre-quake levels though a full recovery would also take until the end of February, when it expects to finish repairs.
The extent of the damage and the distance of affected areas from Japan made a quick recovery difficult, said KDDI spokesman Keiichi Sakurai.
Repair delays have been repeated across the region.
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