China's telecoms hit hard by recent storms

THE BLIZZARDS that paralysed southern China before the Lunar New Year caused damages of 1.1 billion yuan (over £70 million, €94 million and $137 million), according to preliminary figures compiled by the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry.

Prior to February 4th, when most of the storm damage reportedly occurred, about 6,500 facilities in a dozen provinces were disrupted, roughly 100,000 telephone poles fell and approximately 23,000 km of lines were downed, affecting over 39 million Chinese.

The worst hit provinces reportedly included Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Hubei, Guangxi, Sichuan and Zhejiang.

To cope with widespread effects of the disastrous snowstorms, up to 800,000 communications workers were deployed with about 330,000 repair vehicles. Approximately 300,000 pieces of emergency communications equipment were put into use and about 1.3 billion public welfare text messages were sent out.

Most of the affected communications facilities are said to be back in service. µ

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