(Xinhua via NewsEdge) Services for IDD and roaming calls to and from Hong Kong have almost resumed normal, the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) said.
Local telecommunications services and communications with the mainland and Macao are back to normal, the OFTA added.
However, calls from overseas (except Japan and Taiwan) to Hong Kong using calling cards are still very congested, the OFTA said.
On data services, overall there has been some improvement in access to the Internet, but most users will continue to experience slow access.
According to the latest update by the OFTA, two repair ships had already arrived at the scene to repair the submarine cables damaged by Tuesday's powerful earthquakes in seas south of Taiwan.
However, one of the two ships had experienced a major fault Saturday afternoon and is now under urgent repair in Gaoxiong, Taiwan.
The repair for the ship is estimated to take about a week. Therefore the repair for the cables has to be postponed. It is estimated that the first part of the repair of a submarine cable system would be completed around January 16, 2007.
For the other damaged cables, survey and assessment are being arranged and repair of most of the cables is expected to be completed progressively by the end of January 2007, the OFTA added.
© 2006 Xinhua News Agency
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