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Quakes Disrupt Chinese Internet Service
by Winter Casey
Major Internet service providers in Hong Kong recovered close to 80 percent of their international connection capabilities Tuesday following earthquakes that paralyzed data services in the region.
Hong Kong telecommunications authorities have had to cope with the aftermath of the Dec. 26 earthquakes that damaged regional undersea data cables in the Taiwan Straits. The cables carry most of Hong Kong's Internet traffic.
The U.S. Geological Survey rated the southwestern Taiwan earthquakes as major at 7.1 and strong at 6.9, and said they "occurred in a zone of transition along the north-south boundary between the Eurasian plate and the Philippine Sea plate."
According to a Dec. 28 statement from Hong Kong's Office of the Telecommunications Authority, the quakes damaged or broke "nearly all the submarine cables passing over the earthquake region and connected to Japan, Korea, the United States, Canada" and other places.
The authority added that "six of the seven main submarine cable systems in the Luzon Strait were broken down one by one at different times. ... The cables account for about 90 percent of the total capacity and mainly affect connections to Japan, Taiwan, Korea, the United States and Canada."
Following the earthquake, two repair ships were sent to fix the cables, but one ship experienced a major fault and was sent to a city in Taiwan for urgent repair.
Hong Kong telecom operators have been making arrangements to obtain as much capacity as possible for data traffic to North America through Australia, China, Europe and Singapore. The authority has advised overseas callers to Hong Kong to use mobile telephones or fixed-line phones instead of calling cards.
On Tuesday, access to overseas Web sites was slower than usual, and the authority said that e-mails sent to and from overseas servers could take longer to reach their destinations. "Some real-time applications such as [Internet telephony] may be adversely affected by the excessive response time as the traffic has to go through a longer alternative route," regulators said. However, the office said roaming services were functioning normally once more.
The telecom authority has asked the public to minimize non-essential visits to overseas Web sites, the uploading or downloading of large files to and from those sites, and other non-essential activities that demand large bandwidth over international connections.
The damage caused by the natural disaster is not expected to be repaired until mid-February if the environment and the weather permit. The office hopes that one damaged submarine cable system will be operating by the middle of January and will significantly improve the situation.
Submarine cables or fiber optic cables transmit voice and data traffic with higher reliability and security at a cheaper rate than satellite, according to the International Cable Protection Committee. The committee, which holds annual meetings on cable issues of international concern, is headquartered in the United Kingdom and was established in 1958. The group is focused on safeguarding submarine cables against manmade and natural hazards.
According to panel, the "cables form the backbone of the global communications network," and the Internet could not function without them.
U.S. Tech Advantages Concern Europe
The European Union performed poorly in 2006 in terms of the number of patent applications and the amount of business spending on research and development, according to a provisional paper posted as part of the European Commission's annual progress report.
Innovation in the European Union is stifled by a lack of access to capital for startup companies and collaboration between research and industry, the report said.
Whereas information and communication technologies contribute 40 percent of total EU productivity growth, the figure is 60 percent in the United States. In a further comparison, European tech investments represent about 20 percent of total R&D spending but 30 percent in the United States.
The commission said that according to the latest official data, overall research spending in the European Union represents 1.96 percent of the gross domestic product. Research spending is at 2.59 percent of GDP in the United States, 3.12 percent in Japan and 2.91 percent in South Korea.
"Although more than 70 percent of the EU population is covered by broadband, only 7.5 percent are using it at the moment," the commission noted.
In terms of the workforce, the European Union also ranks lower for the number of scientists and researchers, with 5.3 per 1,000 people in the workforce compared to 9.0 per 1,000 in the United States and 9.7 per 1,000 in Japan.
IBM, Siemens To Modernize German Military
IBM and Siemens Business Services have been awarded a 10-year contract worth roughly $9.3 billion to modernize the technology of the German Federal Armed Forces.
The two companies will work under a consortium in which they hold 50.1 percent of the shares combined and the German federal government holds 49.9 percent. The cooperation is said to be the largest public-private partnership in Europe.
Under the agreement, the companies will replace the military's current software and create a help desk for users. IBM has been a tech partner of the German military for almost 50 years, according to a joint company statement.
U.K. To Expand Sex-Offender Registry
The United Kingdom Home Office announced in December that the country's sex-offender registry should include offenders convicted of a wider range of sex-related crimes. The registry was built in 1997 to monitor people convicted of serious sexual offenses.
Under the new rules, crimes added to the list include improper use of public electronic communications networks, harassment, theft, and "outraging public decency."
The expansion of the registry follows a review of a 2003 law aimed at protecting the public from sexual crimes and input from legal and enforcement officials, according to the Home Office. The office is responsible for the police service and the justice system in England and Wales, and for national security and immigration.
In the year ending in March 2005, the 60,900 sexual offenses recorded by police in England and Wales marked a 17 percent rise over the previous year.
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