A man walks past a monitor of an internet service point in Hong Kong December 27, 2006.   Jan. 1 - China Telecom said here Sunday that its internet services, which were disrupted by the severance of undersea cables following an earthquake off the Taiwan coast, would be back to normal on January 15.

 

"Five vessels have been dispatched to repair the damaged lines," said an official with the company on Sunday. "But heavy seas have made the repair work very difficult."

 

The earthquake has left some cables trapped under the seabed, and others are tangled up, said the official. We will have to add some new sections of cable -- up to 400 meters -- to reconnect the lines.

 

China Telecom said that, after the earthquake, some internet traffic was re-routed via landline cables connecting China and Europe and satellite transmissions were also used. Now 70 percent of overseas internet connections have been reestablished.

 

But the official said the link to North America would not be significantly improved until the subsea cable was repaired.