CHINA / National |
Phone links to world improve after earthquake(Shanghai Daily)Updated: 2006-12-29 09:09 China's telecommunications carriers said they were able to restore most major overseas phone connections yesterday in the wake of Tuesday's earthquake. But it may still be weeks before phone and Internet services are back to normal. Only 10 to 15 percent of overseas Internet connections were back on line, and the China-United States link was so jammed with traffic it barely functioned. Shanghai Internet users were unable to visit most overseas Websites. "All long-distance call services should be restored in the next few days," China Netcom said on its Website. It will take "a long period" for full repairs to be completed, perhaps two to three weeks, the carrier said. Tuesday's earthquake and aftershocks, which damaged undersea telecom cables, cut off most of China's access to overseas Websites and international calls through Wednesday. A few people reported being able to use Microsoft Network Messenger services yesterday morning, but access didn't last long. White-collar workers, who depend highly on MSN, had to seek alternate channels. "We had to go back to the phone age from the Web age," said Susan Chen, a public relations official. "We had to make long-distance calls to reach the media and clients while we normally use MSN to contact them." MSN China, which has 15 million users, said it has restored part of its service in the country. The delivery industry was also affected. Fedex China's hotline service informed callers that its service was affected by the telecommunications disruptions, and the company could provide only limited information for package tracking. |
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