Asian Telcos Shirk Fiber Upgrades Because Pacific Earthquakes Are So Rare

from the state-of-denial dept

Fri, Dec 29th 2006 12:40pm — Karl Bode

As we mentioned yesterday, it was already pretty clear before the recent earthquake that Asian fiber networks were capacity strapped and lacked redundancy. When fiber lines were cut, many Asia network operators were forced to reroute their traffic to the U.S. via elaborate alternative routes, creating laggy connections as user traffic bounced halfway around the globe. Those users will have to get used to sluggish connectivity, because initial sea floor exploration indicates damage to the cables is substantial, and could take longer to repair than previously estimated. Hong Kong authorities have asked users to "minimize nonessential downloading of large files from overseas," in the hopes of preserving bandwidth. As we've noted, there are a lot of companies planning to expand capacity in the region, driven largely by demand. Of course there's several providers looking to take the cheap way out -- the largest telcos in both South Korea and Taiwan are insisting that additional lines aren't necessary because earthquakes are apparently rare in the Pacific, despite the fact they live in the one of the world's most tectonically active regions. Nothing screams customer dedication quite like admitting you're cheap in the middle of a major connectivity crisis.

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8 Comments

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gdwntx, 29 Dec 2006 @ 1:58pm

i dont care
just wanted to say i do not care
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- Give a jamn, 29 Dec 2006 @ 2:30pm
  
  Re: i dont care
  Hey I really don't care either. Well maybe a little bit more than gdwtx. Seems to me they should not worry about the fiber in the ocean and put up a satelite link. wouldn't that be cheaper in the long run??
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bendodge, 29 Dec 2006 @ 2:52pm

Sky=$$
No. Satellites capable of carrying that much traffic cost a lot more to install and maintain than undersea cables. Fiber is also much, much faster.
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anonymous coward, 29 Dec 2006 @ 4:00pm

the asian telcos should take a lesson from the u.s. telcos, they should get legislation passed allowing them to collect hundreds of millions of dollars from their customers to upgrade infrastructure and rollout new services then just keep the money and postpone the actual work indefinitely!
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- Jesse McNelis, 30 Dec 2006 @ 7:21am
  
  Re:
  1. Charge for works to be undertaken
  2. Don't undertake works
  3. Profit
  4. ??????
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marshall, 30 Dec 2006 @ 3:33pm

i sort of care
I live in Humboldt County, California, where we have only one fiber line connecting the entire county to the rest of the internet. This week that line was severed and took 13 hours to fix. So while I don't really care what happens in Asia (regarding their connectivity), I think a more important topic is completing a more robust internet here in the US. There are still so many areas without redundant pipes, and that problem has the potential to negatively affect businesses and economies in those areas when natural disasters sever the lines.
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Enrico Suarve, 2 Jan 2007 @ 2:00am

Its looking better
Seems that although the cables will be a while getting fixed the doom mongers are a little bit premature as normal

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/01/business/connect.php

Most of the connections are apparently looking close to normal although none of the fibres has been repaired yet

As for 'I don't care' - wow you actually bother to reply to posts just to let people know you don't care? What makes you think anyone else cares whether you care or not?
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Anand Kumar, 6 Jan 2007 @ 3:54am

temple
Official Website of Shri Srinivasa Ragavaswamy charitable Trust in South India working towards constructing a temple for Sri Srinivasa Perumal (balaji) with Raja Gopuram which is named as Kovai Thiruppathy.
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