Vietnam races to restore Internet access

Telecom corporations are working to quickly re-establish Internet access after a quake ruptured undersea cables off the coast of Taiwan, with two companies claiming repairs are 80 percent complete.

Vietnam Military Electronics and Telecommunications Co (Viettel) and Vietnam Data Communication Co (VDC) said late Friday that 80 percent of international Internet access had been successfully restored.

Connections to Yahoo, MSN, and hotmail were reportedly accessible with Viettel reporting access pace bouncing back to 310MB per second.

But Internet users are still in the doldrums about sluggish access to many international websites.

A Viettel official said the company had dispatched standing personnel to handle arising problems.

VDC also said they would remain in touch with international counterparts to sort out the problem within the next few days.

But another Vietnamese giant telecom company, FPT reportedly saw little improvement in this manner.

Truong Dinh Anh, FPT general director, said only 60 percent of disrupted Internet connection had been restored.

“[That] is because FPT’s chief partner, the Hong Kong PCCW telecom corporation, was also hit hardest in the Taiwan quake,” Anh elaborated.

He also admitted only when PCCW begins their repair work this weekend will FPT customers see grounds for hope of access improvement.

Vietnam was largely cut off from the World Wide Web Wednesday after a strong earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale hit Taiwan a day earlier, damaging undersea cables.

The unprecedented accident also took tolls on broadband service providers as well as foreign exchange trading in Asian countries.