Cable Breaks - Again Around Taiwan

Since several days, some media have reported this issue. Some media have pointed to the Typhoon Morakot as the possible cause. Others (as cited by Commsday) mentioned a possibly undetected underwater earthquake. In common, seems they agree that the sources of these multiple cuts shall be something related to the natural happening. Which cable is impacted?

• SMW3
• EAC S2A1 (detected on 06/August); D (08/August); C (9/August)
• APCN2 S7 HK-TW? (09/August)
• APCN2 S1 SG-MY? (19/August)
• APCN (?)
• FNAL (HK-TW)

Quotes:

The impact of the cuts was less severe than the previous multi-cut event back in December 2006, which halted Internet traffic in the region for an extended period. Operators seem to have learned their lesson and have managed to largely reroute traffic over other routes. However, no one seems to know, or is not prepared to explain, what caused those cuts.

“Several news outlets have reported multiple undersea cable breaks around Southeast Asia occurring on 12 August 2009. Due to the depths of the water and the fact that – according to various reports and quoted cable operators - multiple cables have been affected, the most likely cause is undersea seismic activity (i.e. earthquakes),” he wrote in a note. “Cable damage due to fishing activity tends to be in shallow water, and usually affects one cable at a time. Yesterday’s disruptions, then, are puzzling.”

A ComputerWorld Singapore report put the time of the fault on APCN2 at 10:50am Wednesday. The affected segment was between China and Taiwan, forcing regional Internet traffic to be routed onto other systems. The report suggests that the APCN2 cut impacted the performance of the Internet for users in South East Asia.

The report also highlighted two previous faults on APCN2 - on Segment 7 connecting Hong Kong and Taiwan and on Segment 1 connecting Singapore and Malaysia. The sources told ComputerWorld that the cause of the fault was still unknown. However, a Straits Times report is suggesting that Typhoon Morakot, which triggered massive flooding in Taiwan, is the cause of the latest APCN2 cut.

A spokesman for Pacnet also confirmed to ComputerWorld that there were "double faults" on its pan-Asian EAC system off the coast of Taiwan over the weekend. According to the report, the EAC cable experienced its first cut in the early mornings of 9 August on a segment linking Taiwan and Hong Kong and a second cut on another segment linking the two countries roughly 12 hours later. Pacnet also gave no explanation for the EAC cuts. Pacnet was not immediately available for comment.