Today, I was unable to access the majority of the overseas websites, for a large portion of the day – I thought it was my own computer, or the connection between the router that was giving me the problem, but I later verified it with a couple of other friends whom I’ve met online on Skype, and they were experiencing the same problems.
Frustrated, I go on to do stuff offline, I got my books out and read them, took a nap, but woke up finding the issue was not fixed.
It was just when I go home from dinner that I found out that it was because of the Taiwan earthquake.
Here’s an excerpt of the reports from ChannelNewsAsia.com
SINGAPORE : The earthquake in Taiwan has wrecked havoc online among thousands of internet users in Asia.
Singapore has also been affected – with major online disruptions.
Others in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong were also hit, after the quake damaged several undersea cables around Taiwan.
Service providers say the recovery process will take days, if not weeks.
…The reason – the earthquake off Taiwan on Tuesday night damaged the undersea cables, resulting in slow internet access to some sites.
…Other providers like Pacific Internet say connectivity problems may stay for days or even weeks, while repairs are in progress.
But users can expect big improvements over the next few days.
(Source: ChannelNewsAsia.com, 27 December 2006)
Its terrible, just imagine all the businesses that rely on the Internet access, it will take weeks before full speed of the network is restored. Meanwhile, access is still available but will take longer to route to the U.S.
I’m lucky to have my sites all hosted in Singapore, so I still can post to my blogs and do my work… except maybe it may take a longer time to load because some of the scripts like Statcounter and the Google Ads may be based in an area where access is limited.
Singaporeans (or rather, Asians) reading this, how has your online businesses been affected by the quake, and have you thought what would happen if today’s news announced that it will take two months to repair the cables? While there is much going on about the Internet being worldwide business instantly, are we taking for granted that it will always be such?
Is it time to rethink where you should host your websites? If your life depends on those telecommunication lines, how would you strategize to maximize uptime?
Visit Shi Hengcheong
My Starhub broadband is back to normal this morning. In fact, it is faster than before the Taiwan quake.
How come, huh?
I am not complaining as long as they keep it at this speed. Could it be the upgrade from 4Mbps to 6Mbps? But I am talking about accessing US websites – it is really faster than before.
Since 6Mbps is a comfortable speed now, I cannot think of a good reason to upgrade to 100Mbps, which is the fastest broadband in Singapore – launched on the day when Internet access going out of Singapore jammed and crashed.
This fastest access plan costs S$121.80 per month plus a one-time payment of S$525 for a DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem. Very expensive hor?
Another interesting thing is that Starhub changes the access plan name – no more numbers to show the maximum speed. It is now Starhub Ultimate, Starhub Premium and Starhub Express. A classical case of branding flop! Originally, some smart alec thought 1500kbps was a bit deal and brand it Starhub 1500, not know that Korea and Hongkong were already working on 100,000kbps for home users!
I think Starhub Ultimate 100Mbps is more to save the face of IDA than really promoting very fast broadband access.
Find out more on the Fat Green Pipe here.
Visit Kian Ann
So good… this morning I was still unable to access (or had to reload a couple of times) some websites. So its time go back and chase up on my article writing! Been lagging for a few days now!
Visit John
Me too yesterday had difficulty to access most of my website too. Hope it will recover fast or else I will be a bit bored. Haha.
As for my online business part, I guess when this internet access problem do occurs, we need to have some backup plan or else we will be paralized by when this hit again.
Below are some things I usually do when my internet access got some problems:
1)I usually write article to do some article marketing
I have been working hard so deserved some good rest 
2)Do some design work of my website which need to improve which I do not need to online
3)Do some continue learning. I think I had some ebooks that I had bought but had not really read it yet. SO this is the best times.
4)Get some rest
John Tan
Visit Kian Ann
Well said, John. I think there are some thing we can control and some which we cannot. If the Internet access is paralysed, there is not much we can do about it anyway (unless you can go deep diving around Taiwan to repair the cables
). So its time to whip out all the “digital junk” and start reading them.
For the long term strategy, it is also important to host your site near your customers. So, if your site is targeted for the people in the US, it would be great to host your site in the US (even though access and uploading would be slower from here). That way, even cross country breakages in the Internet will not trouble your online businesses.
Visit SEO to Target Singapore and Nearby Countries
[...] With the recent Taiwan quake and Internet access chaos, I am convinced that my strategy is right. Most of my Singapore SEO’ed websites hosted in Singapore still get loads of traffic from Singapore and Australia. My traffic is not affected by the damaged cables. [...]
Visit Another Feather In Her Cap
[...] A break in a critical link often proves disruptive, as was demonstrated in southeast Asia in 2006 and now in the Middle East and Europe: “Internet outages disrupted business and personal [...]