Hong Kong panics as quake downs Interweb Keepy-uppy
By Nick Farrell: Tuesday 02 January 2007, 14:56
HONG KONG telecom authorities declared a state of emergency this morning after the Boxing Day Earthquake cut internet sea cables.
After thinking they had escaped a worst-case scenario following the quake, Hong Kong authorities assumed emergency powers to deal with what it expected to be a huge plate of mess when everyone returned to work this morning.
Former British colony's telecom authority OFTAA switched on an emergency response system this morning, and braced itself for shedloads of calls.
According to Associated Press, this was a little surprising, as the Hong Kong Telcos seemed a bit relaxed after the Christmas break and did not think that the Earthquake would cause too many problems. After the New Year weekend they grew a bit more twitchy.
In the end, it appears that the laid back approach was appropriate. The emergency set-up had only taken a handful of calls and, by the close of business today web traffic had moved smoothly and there were few reports of serious congestion.
Theoretically things should have been a lot worse, as all but one of the seven submarine links, which carry international data in and out of Hong Kong, were snapped and Internet capacity was down to 70 percent.
A spokesOfta said that the situation was much better than it had expected. It seems that the ISPs rerouted much of their traffic through land links with China and via satellite networks.
"If we can get just one of the six broken cables back in service, Hong Kong's Internet capacity can be brought back to normal levels by the middle of this month, the spokesOfta softly said. µ
How come HK takes such a long time to respond? 
