(Xinhua via NewsEdge) China's top two Internet operators, China Telecom and China Netcom, have announced that overseas communication services disrupted by the earthquake at sea area of Taiwan last month are now almost restored'.
A 100% recovery is still two weeks away when all cables will have been fixed, the companies said.
With the major underwater cable connecting China with North America partially repaired, Internet users will see that things are back to normal, sources with China Telecom, the country's largest telecom operator, told Xinhua.
Internet users have seen improved Internet access, saying sites they couldn't log onto for a month are accessible again, but some foreign Web sites are still slow.
Many Internet users wondered whether the Internet operators would have the decency to give them a rebate.
An anonymous writer on Thatsbj.com bulletin said that telecom operators should have reduced their charges until the net was working again at full capacity.
China Telecom responded that it was not the company's fault but a natural disaster and there was no regulation requiring compensation or lower charges.
Bad weather conditions and technological problems delayed the repair work that China Netcom predicted would finish at the end of January. The company said the cost will be huge as each cable break costs about $700,000 to $800,000 to repair.
A quake on Dec. 26 measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale off the southern tip of Taiwan damaged all nine fiber-optic cables that cross the ocean floor south of Taiwan, affecting telecommunication traffic between the mainland and Taiwan, Hong Kong, the US, Southeast Asia and Europe.
© 2007 Xinhua News Agency
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