A Taiwanese telecom official has said that most internet and telephone services disrupted by Tuesday's earthquake should be restored by noon (04:00 GMT) on Thursday.

 

Lin Jen-hung, vice-general manager of Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom, said 95 per cent of internet service and 80 per cent of telephone service would be restored.

The 6.7-magnitude quake and its aftershocks that struck in southern Taiwan near the town of Hengchun killed two people and caused disruption to telecommunications companies in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, China, Singapore and South Korea.

Wu Chih-ming, another Chunghwa official, said on Thursday the company was taking emergency measures to restore internet and telephone service on the island.

 

"We are renting transmission capacity from private cable operators," he said. He said that a small portion of phone service was also being routed through satellite connections.

 

Lin said four ships with crews to repair the two undersea data transmission cables ruptured by the quake will arrive in the affected area on January 2.

 

Hong Kong officials said there would be "severe congestion" on undamaged cables and urged internet and phone users to exercise restraint in their usage.