ZENG MIN

SHANGHAI: Chinese net buffs frustrated by a cable break on Friday could find their overseas cyber traffic improving thanks to increasing back-up efforts, but complete recovery is still expected to take a couple of weeks.

Leading Chinese Internet Service Providers (ISPs) contacted by China Daily yesterday were busy opening back-up satellites and other channels to divert the web traffic.

But ISP engineers said cyber access to websites operated in North America, Japan and South Korea was still congested.

"It is like a car accident on a busy road," said Wu Zhongyi, an Internet engineer from Shanghai. "We can divert the traffic to other highways, but the jam cannot be avoided before the whole mess is completely sorted out."

Repairing the broken Sino-US underwater fibre optic cable, which transmits 930 megabytes per second, is expected to take two weeks. It is a major carrier of Internet data between China and the United States.

The cause of the breakage is still under investigation.

Shanghai Telecom, a subsidiary of China Telecom, yesterday opened two satellites, each with a capacity of 45 megabytes, to ease web traffic.

Another two channels - one 45 megabyte Internet circuitry satellite and one 45 megabyte Internet circuitry cable - had already been opened last Friday in response to the mishap.

Shanghai Unicom, and China Netcom's Shanghai branch, told China Daily yesterday that back-up efforts were being put in place.

"A 45 megabyte Internet circuitry satellite will be launched in a couple of days. This, coupled with 10 additional cables that have already opened on Saturday, will smooth Internet access," a spokesman from Shanghai Unicom said.

The broken line had caused some headaches.

Expatriates from North America have had to turn to faxes and phones to keep in touch.