IT WAS a tsunami for the digital age, a natural disaster of the virtual world that radiated through much of Asia and beyond following an undersea earthquake late on Tuesday off the coast of Taiwan.
People woke on Wednesday to find themselves without email or the internet and, in some cases, without telephone connections.
The earthquake ruptured undersea cables that are part of a communications fabric that circles the globe.
Coming on the second anniversary of the Asian tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands of people, it was a reminder of the world's increasing dependence on communications technology.
Financial companies and technology services suffered most directly.
"You don't realise until you miss it how much you rely heavily on technology," Andrew Clarke, a sales trader in Hong Kong, said. "Stuff you took for granted has been taken away and you realise, 'ah, back to the old way, using mobiles'."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment