By Herman Lai, posted Mar 15, 2011 at 7:35 AM, 1,430 views,

Japan’s Earthquake Affects Internet Connection Between China And United States

After the massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake in Japan, it damaged a large number of undersea fiber optic, Pacnet estimates about half the cables running across the Pacific are damaged. In which leaded to occur some disruptions in internet access between Asian countries and North America.

China Telecom had made emergency repairs on Friday to damaged cables, however still can’t confirm when the repair will be done due to the continuing aftershocks and tsunamis.

The company said submarine fiber-optic cables connecting Japan and North America and a Pacific Crossing 1 cable near the city of Kitaibaraki, in Japan’s northern Ibaraki Prefecture, were malfunctioning due to the earthquake.

With China Unicom, the second largest Telecom in the country, says its international voice call operations remain unaffected, however internet data through Japan’s NTT Communications has been significantly impacted, but that has since been mitigated through rerouting via other cables.

Source: WSJ via Shanghaiist