Still, the earthquake in Taiwan exposed the fragile side of tech-savvy society. The Web is defenceless against a blow from a natural disaster.

The more connected we are via the Internet and other technological tools, the more serious the consequences brought by their collapse.

The undersea cable connecting China and the United States was damaged in 2001, and a submarine cable in Chongming, Shanghai was cut off in 2003.

All these events show that communication disruptions know no borders. The maintenance and protection of the Internet need global efforts.

Before the collapse of the Internet in Asia, China, the Republic of Korea and the United States signed a deal last week to invest US$500 million in building a submarine cable linking China and the United States.

This will increase the capacity of the wires that facilitate our Internet access.

The World Wide Wait will be on for a while because Internet traffic diversion and repair work is currently under way. The repairs could extend well into January.

The telephone and Internet glitches in the past two days have served as a wake-up call to carry out effective maintenance work at the global level.

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