Undersea cable linking Taiwan-Matsu disconnects again

Taipei, Feb. 17 (CNA) A submarine cable connecting Taiwan and the Matsu Islands suffered a "complete disconnection" on Sunday, the second such incident affecting the fiber optic telecom link this year, the Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) said Monday.

Chunghwa Telecom, which operates the undersea cable, informed the National Communications Commission around midday on Sunday that the full outage had occurred with the Taiwan-Matsu No. 2 cable in waters off New Taipei, according to a MODA news release.

The telecom company also followed standard procedure by requesting assistance from the Coast Guard Administration to investigate the cause of the cable break, MODA said.

The digital ministry further said it instructed Chunghwa Telecom to activate backup systems including microwave links to "maintain connectivity" between Taiwan proper and the Matsu region (officially Lienchiang County), a Taiwan-administered archipelago near China.

The Taiwan-Matsu No. 2 cable, one of two submarine telecom links between the two administrative regions, had been repaired recently after disconnecting on Jan. 22. MODA attributed the break to "natural deterioration."

A complete disconnection with another fiber optic cable, the Taiwan-Matsu No. 3 cable, also happened on Jan. 15, and that link is currently undergoing repairs, according to MODA.

The ministry also said that Chunghwa Telecom expects to have repaired Taiwan-Matsu No. 3 by the end of February and Taiwan-Matsu No. 2 by the end of March.

In an interview with CNA on Saturday, Audrey Tang (唐鳳), Taiwan's ambassador-at-large for cyber affairs, said that the nation had maintained uninterrupted internet connectivity during the last Taiwan-Matsu cable breakdown incident.

The former digital affairs minister was in Germany last week to speak at the Munich Cyber Security Conference, where they praised Taiwan's approach to digital challenges in front of an international audience of politicians, academics, business people and defense experts.

Later on Monday, Chunghwa Telecom issued its own news release, saying that even without the underseas cables, its microwave technologies alone possessed the capacity to maintain connectivity between Taiwan and the Matsu Islands.

The company said it currently provides 12.6 gigabits per second of microwave-based connectivity, while Matsu's peak usage is around 9.5 gigabits per second.

Another Taiwan-Matsu submarine telecom cable is under construction, the partially state-owned company said, with work expected to be completed in 2026.

Chunghwa Telecom, the largest integrated telecom service provider in Taiwan, is 35.29 percent owned by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications. It owns and operates all 10 domestic undersea cables in Taiwan, including the two connecting Taiwan and the Matsu Islands.