Here is what I saw from eBay:
***Asia Internet Connectivity Hit by Taiwan Earthquake – Trading Advice***
December 28, 2006 | 12:28PM PST/PT
“On December 26, an earthquake off the coast of Taiwan damaged several undersea cables shared by international telecommunications companies. This has disrupted Internet connectivity in many countries in Asia, including Australia.
While repairs are being made, it may take several days for their Internet services to work as normal. If you are involved in an eBay transaction with a member in this area, we encourage you to be patient with them and to keep trying to communicate as their services are restored.”
And from Wang Jianshuo’s blog
“Wangjianshuo.com was not accessible since the last time I posted. The cable was completely cut off, and I am using a proxy to get very slow access to the site. Just want to post a note to let people know I am still OK, but I am not able to update the blog since I cannot access the site from China now.
Hope the Internet cable between China and the rest of the world is repaired soon. Optimistic opinion is, it will be OK within 2 or three weeks.
Today, very limited Internet access to outside China was recovered. Many sites are still not accessible. People in U.S. should have no problem to visit this site.
Some technical background: This site is hosted in U.S., and updated from Shanghai, daily.”
My comments: theoritically, Internet itself is resilient in the sense it could re-route the packets (data) if it found out one route is no good. But in reality the connection between US and China has bottle neck before the earthquake. As matter of fact the new northern asia cable project is under discussion 2 weeks before the incident. So, guys/gals, patience, more patience,…