Jan 23, 2007

Undersea Cables broken off Taiwan

Our lovely editor, Catherine, has been suggesting for some time that my problems with cyberspace being hit by seismic turbulance in Asia would make a good blog. I suspect though, she just wants me to pass my moans on to others and allow her to put her feet up on the polished leather of her beautifully laid out desk in her tastefully furnished suite of executive rooms high above the city. So I asked a selection of street vendors of noodle soup here in Thonburi, what was the main subject of conversation around the stalls.

“Khun Mari”, said Noi, the thinker among the noodle sellers, “without doubt it is the seismic turbulance caused by the breaking of the cables off Taiwan”.

And there you have it.

Little do you know the problems I’ve had getting my blogs. on screen.

When the earthquake off the coast of Taiwan hit on Boxing Day it cut off all Internet access for most of the region, an upheaval that snapped six cables, five of which were used by Thailand (where I have been since December with short forays into Singapore & Malaysia). Thailand connects to the internet in the USA through these cables

The resulting havoc caused to business across East Asia - and your correspondent here - is indescribable. Emails would be written, leave the INBOX, appear in the SENT box, but never reach the recipient. I don’t usually ask for receipts, so life was very confusing until I realised what was happening. The resulting correspondence was even more so.

Some got through and that caused difficulties, because I didn’t know which ones got through and which ones didn’t! Blogs were put up but when I checked they weren’t there. Articles were written and submitted but vanished into the ether never to be seen again.

The long term solution seems to be to drag up the cables and fix them, but a short term solution is to turn on spare capacity and route the data through Europe instead. Data going through Europe still goes the long way round, through the US before reaching London and they talk of months rather than weeks to get it fixed! No, don't even ask!

If seismologists are right, we will be seeing more major earthquakes in the years ahead as the weight of water in the Three Gorges Dam in China shakes the earth, literally.

Meanwhile, I’m still here - struggling with Broadband that is narrow, and WiFi that isn‘t. Comments or commiserations accepted.