Many netizens found they could not log onto MSN yesterday. Mr. Li who works in an network company encountered the same difficulty. Instead of logging onto MSN, he had to contact with his clients through QQ, since there’s also something wrong with the phone service. The number of MSN users in China is estimated to reach 15 million.

Besides the unavailability of MSN, many netizens also have difficulty in visiting overseas websites including Yahoo and Microsoft.

China Telecom explains that several international undersea fiber-optic cables such as Sino-US submarine cable, FLAG cable and FNAL cable were damaged by the earthquake of Taiwan, causing disruption of internet and phone service in the neighboring countries and regions.

The earthquake has affected most Asian regions in many ways. E-business is the one that has been affected most. E-bay company reveals its effort to restore services as soon as possible. Staff member working in foreign-funded enterprises say the unavailability of MSN, Yahoo and Hotmail makes them difficult to contact with foreign colleagues and customers. Many Chinese students also express their worry about overseas study application, since internet disruption may affect their online application. Long-distance call service to Taiwan and the US has also been affected.

China Telecom and China Netcom declare that they will try their best to minimize the effect by contacting overseas operators, undersea cable management organizations and satellite organizations. However, the undersea cable project as well as the aftershock makes the repair work difficult. Zhao Zhongxin, the spokesperson of China Netcom says they are ready for restoring services and will begin the repair work as long as the aftershock stops. He also says that the date of normalcy won’t be known unless the testing result of damaged fiber-optic cables comes out.