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Telecom disruptions hamper rescue effort

By Wang Xing in Beijing and Fu Jing in Deyang,Sichuan (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-17 09:18

Telecom services disrupted by Monday's quake have yet to be restored to a number of mountainous towns in Mianzhu and Shifang counties, hampering rescue efforts.

China Mobile, the country's largest cellphone operator, said engineers had managed to build alternative base stations and temporary emergency mobile networks in the counties. But it said it was still difficult to reach small towns and villages, as access roads had been blocked.

However, China Daily has observed that several towns, including Yinghua in Shifang, whose road links are intact, have yet to be reconnected to the mobile network.

A resident of Hongbai, a town in Shifang, said he had spent the past three days trying to reach the nearest rescue stations after losing contact with the outside world.

Mobile services in at least seven towns in Mianzhu county remained paralyzed on Friday.

All of the towns in the two county-level cities have basically been demolished and survivors and rescuers are in desperate need of a phone service so they can contact the outside world.

Gao Songge, a spokesman for China Mobile said he couldn't say when the affected areas would be reconnected.

Although network has been largely restored, wireless communication remained unstable in disrupted areas with poor signal coverage.

Li Jinchun, chief engineer of State Radio Monitoring Center, said the hilly geography in most of the counties in Sichuan makes it difficult to receive signals from the new base stations.

"I think it will take a couple of months before all the telecom services are restored in the disrupted regions," he said.

Fixed-line services in Wenchuan, Lixian, Beichuan and Qingchuan counties resumed on Friday, China Telecom, the country's largest fixed-line operator, said.

But people in Heishui, Maoxian and Pingwu are still relying on emergency networks. China Telecom said its fiber-optic cables connecting Lanzhou, Xining and Lhasa, which carry Internet services and long-distance calls, had also been repaired.