Stupidity

Stupidity

by Karl Bode




Asian Telcos Shirk Fiber Upgrades Because Pacific Earthquakes Are So Rare

from the state-of-denial dept

As we mentioned yesterday, it was already pretty clear before the recent earthquake that Asian fiber networks were capacity strapped and lacked redundancy. When fiber lines were cut, many Asia network operators were forced to reroute their traffic to the U.S. via elaborate alternative routes, creating laggy connections as user traffic bounced halfway around the globe. Those users will have to get used to sluggish connectivity, because initial sea floor exploration indicates damage to the cables is substantial, and could take longer to repair than previously estimated. Hong Kong authorities have asked users to "minimize nonessential downloading of large files from overseas," in the hopes of preserving bandwidth. As we've noted, there are a lot of companies planning to expand capacity in the region, driven largely by demand. Of course there's several providers looking to take the cheap way out -- the largest telcos in both South Korea and Taiwan are insisting that additional lines aren't necessary because earthquakes are apparently rare in the Pacific, despite the fact they live in the one of the world's most tectonically active regions. Nothing screams customer dedication quite like admitting you're cheap in the middle of a major connectivity crisis.

8 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

Reader Comments

(Flattened / Threaded)

    Dec 29th, 2006 @ 1:58pm
  • i dont care

    by gdwntx

    just wanted to say i do not care

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

    • Dec 29th, 2006 @ 2:30pm
    • Re: i dont care

      by Give a jamn

      Hey I really don't care either. Well maybe a little bit more than gdwtx. Seems to me they should not worry about the fiber in the ocean and put up a satelite link. wouldn't that be cheaper in the long run??

      (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

    Dec 29th, 2006 @ 2:52pm
  • Sky=$$

    No. Satellites capable of carrying that much traffic cost a lot more to install and maintain than undersea cables. Fiber is also much, much faster.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Dec 29th, 2006 @ 4:00pm
  • by anonymous coward

    the asian telcos should take a lesson from the u.s. telcos, they should get legislation passed allowing them to collect hundreds of millions of dollars from their customers to upgrade infrastructure and rollout new services then just keep the money and postpone the actual work indefinitely!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Dec 30th, 2006 @ 3:33pm
  • i sort of care

    I live in Humboldt County, California, where we have only one fiber line connecting the entire county to the rest of the internet. This week that line was severed and took 13 hours to fix. So while I don't really care what happens in Asia (regarding their connectivity), I think a more important topic is completing a more robust internet here in the US. There are still so many areas without redundant pipes, and that problem has the potential to negatively affect businesses and economies in those areas when natural disasters sever the lines.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jan 2nd, 2007 @ 2:00am
  • Its looking better

    by Enrico Suarve

    Seems that although the cables will be a while getting fixed the doom mongers are a little bit premature as normal

    http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/01/business/connect.php

    Most of the connections are apparently looking close to normal although none of the fibres has been repaired yet

    As for 'I don't care' - wow you actually bother to reply to posts just to let people know you don't care? What makes you think anyone else cares whether you care or not?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jan 6th, 2007 @ 3:54am
  • temple

    Official Website of Shri Srinivasa Ragavaswamy charitable Trust in South India working towards constructing a temple for Sri Srinivasa Perumal (balaji) with Raja Gopuram which is named as Kovai Thiruppathy.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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