The communications disruption caused by Tuesday's earthquake off the coast of Taiwan is likely to last well into the New Year.

As reported yesterday, the quake damaged the key ultra high-speed connection linking several Asian countries to the US and Europe, called the Asia Pacific cable network 2 submarine cable (APCN2). It now appears that six of the seven submarine cables running through the area off Taiwan hit by the earthquake were broken, and that six out of 10 cables connecting Korea were also affected.

According to the Office of the Telecommunications Authority in Hong Kong, five ships are setting sail from Singapore and the Philippines to fix the damaged cables off Taiwan. But this operation may take longer than a week.

"In general, it requires about five to seven days to repair the cables. However, due to the earthquake, the seabed may have been damaged and there may be further earthquakes that will affect the maintenance work," said the the Office of the Telecommunications Authority in a statement.

At present, telecommunications companies in the region have rerouted their traffic through other routes, but this is leading to a reduced service.