A Cut in APCN2 Cable Slowed Internet Connections
Since this morning I was wondering why in the hell is the internet very slow. Browsing any site is ultimately slow and I checked the internet activity and it’s sending and receiving very small amout of packets. At first I thought it was just because of number of people connected in the base station. But I wasn’t really convinced on idea. So to hold my peace, I searched around the internet for answers. And I found one. There’s a cut in one of the APCN2 (Asia-Pacific Cable Network 2) undersea submarine cable. It actually crippled the connection speed in the Asia-Pacific region particularly in Singapore and Philippines.
APCN2 cable cut cripples connections
By Victoria Ho, ZDNet Asia
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 04:50 PMupdate A cut in the Asia-Pacific Cable Network 2 (APCN2) undersea submarine cable crippled connection speeds for users in the Asia-Pacific region on Wednesday, particularly in Singapore and the Philippines.
Users were sending updates to local forums and Twitter, complaining of slow connection speeds to sites hosted outside of the region.
According to a notice sent by Malaysian telco, TM Net, the cable fault was traced to segment 7 of the APCN2, which stretches between Shantou, China and Tanshui, Taiwan. TM Net traced the outage to Typhoon Morakot, which hit the region over the weekend.
Additionally, segment 1 of the APCN2 is also currently under repair. Repairs on segment 7 are expected to commence after work on segment 1 is completed.
TM Net said the repairs are expected to be completed by late evening Aug. 13.
Singapore operator, SingTel, confirmed the cable fault in an e-mail to ZDNet Asia, saying the APCN2’s consortium members have started restoration works and are diverting Internet traffic to other cable systems. It said the situation is expected to return to “acceptable levels” within the next 24 hours.
A status update posted on InternetTrafficReport.com showed SingTel’s Singapore gateway registered a score of only 34 points, compared to the global average “health” of network connections, which was 86 points as at 3pm Singapore time on Wednesday.
The site first started registering slower response times and packet loss in Singapore at 8pm Tuesday evening.
Cable & Wireless sent ZDNet Asia a status update at 6pm, Singapore time, noting multiple cable breaks have been also detected along the EAC (East Asia Crossing) and SMW 3 (South-East-Asia, Middle-East, Western-Europe) subsea cable networks, in addition to the APCN2.
These breaks have been concentrated specifically near Taiwan, with network traffic “adversely affected in and out of the region as a result,” said the operator.
Back in 2006, the APCN2 was taken out by a powerful earthquake in Taiwan. Internet access was reportedly badly disrupted and halted in some parts of Asia after the quake.
Source: ZD Net Asia
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Lyle is a freelance Filipino Web Designer in Dubai, UAE who works mostly on front end designs and a Graphic Artist with years of experience in an advertising company and a real estate firm. 
reyjr
Said,
August 12, 2009 @ 8:42 am
ayun, kaya naman pala eh!
nasanay ako sa mabagal na internet akala ko tuloy normal lang ito nung una. hahaha…
Dutch
Said,
August 12, 2009 @ 9:06 am
Tnx for the info (chicken-legged horse) Lyle.
When ka uwi? Samal ulit tau! Ü
Lyle
Said,
August 12, 2009 @ 9:09 am
@Reyjr – Ako rin. I thought I was downloading a lot of things. Kakatapos ko lang ng part 5 ng harry potter hahaha. Kala ko nasobrahan ako sa bandwidth or talagang maraming nagiinternet in our area.
@Dutch – Di ko pa alam eh. Baka di na ako makadaan ng Davao. I might go directly to Dubai na.
jan geronimo
Said,
August 12, 2009 @ 9:50 am
So that’s it? I thought my blog is already under attack by virus, malware, whatever. It must be the times – I’m so praning these days. lol
Nice theme. Clean and elegant. Iba na talaga pag web designer! :)
itot54joni
Said,
August 12, 2009 @ 1:07 pm
buti may baon silang electric tape.lol
Bayantel-PLDT
Said,
August 12, 2009 @ 5:44 pm
Dude, thanks for the info.. well, apparently cant seem to find some good philippine ISP nowadays.. they all “Suck”.. they promise us big but they came out always short.. one thing for sure they are good at is when they give us the BILLs to pay.. so even if the above is true, theyre simply and outstandingly…. FAIL!!!
Lyle
Said,
August 12, 2009 @ 6:58 pm
@Jan – Hahaha. Paranoia strikes!
@Itot54Joni – Hindi lang electric tape. Meron pang stapler at Glue Gun! Hahaha
@Bayantel-PLDT – I think of what happened is actually out of their hands. The cable was cut somewhere in the China Sea.
But you were right at one thing, we don’t have good ISP to count on when it comes to services. They’re all good at collecting the dues. LOL
WildFire
Said,
August 12, 2009 @ 9:48 pm
So this is what is keeping you busy these days, black hacker you.
You graduated from computer hacking to hacking ( literally ) underground internet lines… : )
Nice design, btw.
Lyle
Said,
August 12, 2009 @ 10:11 pm
@Wildfire – Welcome to I Am Lyle! Hehehe
fergus
Said,
August 13, 2009 @ 3:22 am
saan po ba yan sa pinas ang cable naka lagay???
Zorlone
Said,
August 13, 2009 @ 4:56 am
I actually accepted the fact that the lines of myDSL are slow. Whoa!!! This is what’s been happening. Thanks for the information, now I know where to direct my negative outbursts to! LOL
Z
madz
Said,
August 13, 2009 @ 6:18 am
OO nga, kaya nga medyo tinamad ako mag-net, ha ha…
Dee
Said,
August 13, 2009 @ 10:59 pm
Oh, so that’s why! Been frustrated with our connection since the other evening. We thought we got virus or something, so we ran a check and found nothing.
Thanks a lot for this info. But I think, it’s okay now, though. Hopefully. :)
Nice blog you have nga pala.
Lyle
Said,
August 14, 2009 @ 7:28 am
@Dee thank you po!
ceblogger
Said,
August 16, 2009 @ 4:32 am
don’t we have satellite internet yet? i didn’t feel the dsl slowdown.