The No. 2 undersea cable connecting Taiwan proper and Lienchiang County (Matsu) broke at multiple points yesterday, causing a complete outage, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today.
The ministry requested that Chunghwa Telecom, which owns and operates all 10 domestic undersea cables in Taiwan, activate its backup microwave system so that communications can continue as normal, it said.
Undersea cables are Taiwan’s “digital lifeline,” transmitting electricity and information to offshore islands and other countries.
Photo: Taipei Times
There are three undersea cables connecting Taiwan with Matsu, although the No. 2 and No. 3 cables are the most heavily used.
There were breakages in the No. 2 cable on Oct. 3 last year and on Jan. 22 due to age, but other functioning cables were able to maintain communications between Taiwan and Matsu, the ministry said.
The cable, which had already been scheduled for repairs, experienced another break yesterday, resulting in a complete outage due to an increased number of faults, Chunghwa Telecom reported to the National Communications and Cyber Security Center.
The No. 3 cable was completely severed on Jan. 15.
The ministry has coordinated with the cable repair ship to expedite repairs of both cables, it said.
Repairs on the No. 3 and No. 2 cables are expected to be completed by the end of this month and next month respectively, Chunghwa Telecom said.
Activating the backup microwave system would allow communication and Internet services to continue as normal, the ministry said.
The microwave bandwidth of 12.6Gbps, which is higher than the usual peak traffic of 9.5Gbps in Matsu, would prioritize communication services for government agencies, banks, hospitals and other critical infrastructure, the ministry said.
This would ensure that essential services such as ATM withdrawals, credit card transactions and online transactions would not be interrupted while the cables are being repaired, it said.
The ministry also requested the Executive Yuan designate the Taiwan-Matsu undersea cables as critical infrastructure, it said.
To improve communication stability between offshore islands, the government would build asynchronous satellite stations and subsidize telecom operators to increase microwave capacity and construct a No. 4 Taiwan-Matsu cable, the ministry said.
The No. 4 cable is expected to be completed by the middle of next year, Chunghwa Telecom said.
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