internet - Cable trouble might last another month

Telecom executives in Taiwan are not very confident the eight (the number does increase) broken telecommunication cables will be repaired very soon. From the International Herald Tribune:

Chunghwa Telecom in Taiwan, part of a consortium that owns four of the eight undersea cables cut during the Dec. 26 earthquake, said Tuesday that bad weather and rough seas had hampered repair efforts. The damage was also more extensive than initially thought, the company said, with its cables severed in at least 10 places.
The company now estimates that the first cable will not be repaired until early next week, with the three others fixed by the end of the month. The Hong Kong Telecommunications Authority said in a statement Monday that repairs on all the damaged cables would not be completed until the middle of February, weather conditions permitting. The original estimate for final repairs was mid-January.

I must say that by now most basic functions are working slow but it is doable. Heavy duty stuff like youtube or my bank accounts are still out of reach. But this might be part of a psychological process where you tend to adopt to a bad situation and when taken hostage start to understand the position of the hostage takers.