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Pledge to improve reporting of disruption

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Ofta says telecoms operators are not required to give immediate details of cable damage

The government has pledged to improve the system for telecommunications operators to report service failures amid criticism over the slow release of information on this week's internet disruption after the Taiwanese earthquake.

Au Man-ho, director-general of telecoms watchdog Ofta, said that under the existing notification mechanism, operators were not required to make immediate reports about cable damage to the authorities.

Six of the seven main submarine cables linking internet and phone services to the US, Canada, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan were damaged following Tuesday's quake.

'Even if one cable is damaged, internet traffic can be diverted to other routes and the effect is quite insignificant. Sometimes, cable faults occur somewhere very distant from Hong Kong,' Mr Au said, adding that he believed the extent of the damage caused by the earthquake was unprecedented.

Defending the delay in making a public announcement, he said: 'Members of the public already know the internet traffic is congested, so it is not meaningful for us to issue a press release telling them something they already know.

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