Repairs Could Take 2-3 Weeks
By Sonia K

Bandar Seri Begawan - Telekom Brunei Berhad (TelBru) is taking all necessary steps to ensure that interruptions to telecommunications and Internet connections in the country are kept well under control, following the earthquake that hit Taiwan a few days ago.

Working around the clock, TelBru has been coordinating with regional carriers in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Japan to provide partial relief to its consumers. The powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake that struck off the coast of Taiwan on Tuesday night - which was followed by several quakes in the region - damaged the vast network of underwater cables that enables modern communication.

The disruption was widespread, hitting China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and elsewhere, with knock-on effects as far away as Australia for companies whose internet is routed through affected areas.

Following reports from the Internet Network Operation Centre in Hong Kong yesterday, Tilbury has taken the initiatives to ensure interruptions to Internet connections in the country are under control.

On December 27, two of Tilbury's links to Hong Kong were affected at 3.30 am. One link to Hong Kong was still operational - albeit highly congested - due to other telcos rerouting through the same link.

At the same time, coordination was underway with regional partners to reroute traffic via Malaysia. At 5 pm on the same day, TelBru managed to secure more restoration bandwidth via Malaysia, thus resulting in an improvement in traffic performance. P2P traffic was temporarily suspended to allow basic services to function. P2P will gradually be reinstated as bandwidth increases.

That night, around 8 pm, most of TeIBru's Internet traffic were rerouted via Malaysia. The link via Hong Kong was partially restored. TelBru continued to coordinate for more bandwidth via Europe yesterday morning. Work is underway to expedite this alternative route.

Though the earthquake in Taiwan has damaged major submarine cables and devastated communications across East Asia, TelBru has been coordinating with regional carriers to provide partial relief through rerouting via Malaysia and partial restoration via Hong Kong and Japan.

Work is still ongoing to open up more routes via Malaysia to attain a satisfactory level of bandwidth.

In the meantime, Te1Bru was informed that cable maintenance ships are being deployed to sites to carry out necessary repairs.

According to an officer at Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) in Hong Kong, repairs of this nature will usually require at least two to three weeks. However, it may be delayed, as damaged seabed and potential aftershock will prove to be a hindrance to the restoration work.-- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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