Local telcos face problems due to ‘multiple cable cuts’

MANILA, Philippines – The two international cable systems which carry international broadband and telecommunications connectivity for the country’s two leading telco providers — Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and Globe Telecom — have suffered from “multiple cable cuts,” the cause of which is still unknown.

Subscribers, in turn, have been experiencing slow or intermittent Internet connection or finding it difficult to send and receive international voice calls or text messages as a result of the cable cuts.

The submarine fiber optic cables of the Asia-Pacific Cable Network (APCN) and Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 3 (SMW3) which service PLDT and Globe, may have been damaged by adverse weather conditions, reports revealed.

PLDT said its Internet services have been adversely affected by multiple cable faults in two international cable systems APCN2 and SMW3.

These faults, PLDT said, have been detected between Singapore and Malaysia and between China and Taiwan. The exact cause of these faults is still unknown, it added.

As a result, the PLDT Group is now rerouting Internet traffic to other cable systems and coordinating with partners in affected international cable systems to restore full capacity as soon as possible.

The double cable cuts are within the APCN 2, a submarine telecommunications cable linking several countries in the Asia-Pacific region. It has landing points in Chongming, Shanghai, China; Shantou, Guangdong Province, China; Lantau Island, Islands District, Hong Kong; Chikura, Chiba Prefecture, Japan; Kitaibaraki, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan; Pusan, South Korea; Kuantan, Pahang State, Malaysia; Batangas Bay in the Philippines; Katong, Singapore; and Tanshui, Taipei County, Taiwan.

PLDT subsidiary Smart Communications, for its part, said its international and broadband services are adversely affected by the double cable break that occurred Wednesday morning between China and Taiwan; and Malaysia and Singapore.

Affected services include international voice and SMS or text messaging, as well as Internet services under Smart Bro and Smart Bro Plug-It.

Smart said subscribers of these service may experience difficulty in initiating or receiving overseas calls, and sending or receiving text messages abroad. Smart Bro subscribers, on the other hand, may encounter slow or intermittent Internet connection, and difficulty in accessing websites hosted overseas.

“We are still awaiting word on the cause of the fiber cuts. In the meantime, Smart would like to assure the general public that close coordination is ongoing with our network counterparts abroad to aid in restoring normal services as soon as possible,” company officials said.

Meanwhile, Globe Telecom, in a statement, said international undersea cable systems, specifically the APCN2, APCN1 and SMW3 have been down since the morning of Aug. 12 reportedly due to harsh weather.

Globe maintains bandwidth on APCN2 which is now inaccessible from the Philippines, resulting in the partial disruption of its Internet service and some business international circuits.

The company said it has been progressively migrating traffic from APCN2 to its other cable systems, namely C2C and TGN-IA, which are unaffected and provide the necessary redundancy for such eventualities.

Full restoration of Globe’s Internet service was expected as of yesterday, and its affected business circuits are already being rerouted, it added.

“Effectively, customer impact of this eventuality has been mitigated by the alternate routes provided by C2C and TGN-IA. This further validates Globe’s recent investments in diverse cable systems; the TGN-IA system began carrying Globe traffic earlier this year,” Globe officials pointed out.

It will be recalled that in the earlier part of 2007, telco providers and their subscribers also suffered from a fiber break in the APCN cable system due to a strong earthquake off Taiwan. The earthquake damaged six undersea cables.

At that time, PLDT said 66 percent of its circuits were affected by the damage incurred by the APCN2; 77 percent from SMW3; and 48 percent from APCN. The overall impact on PLDT’s services indicated that 30.69 percent of voice traffic was affected; 51.05 percent of its data service; and 41.38 percent of its Internet-related services.

This has resulted in PLDT and other local carriers searching for alternative submarine cable systems that are not located in fault lines and less vulnerable to adverse weather conditions, and investing in redundant systems. –Philippine Star