The widespread blackout leaves millions of people from China to Japan to Australia without Internet, as well as phone service, after the vast network of underwater cables went down.
As a Band-Aid, officials from several communications companies say they are attempting to route Internet traffic through Europe because of the sliced submarine lines off the coast of Taiwan.
Lin Jen-hung, a spokesman for Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan's telecommunications monopoly, said that repairing the undersea cables will take two to three weeks.
Tuesday’s quake and its aftershocks knocked out parts of the SeaMeWe 3 (South East Asia Middle East Western Europe 3) and APCN2 (Asia Pacific Cable Network 2) undersea cables.
Both are major telecommunications arteries in East Asia, and their temporary loss led to the problems being observed on Wednesday. Traffic that traversed the cables has been switched onto alternate routes, but those other cables are now congested.
