Shanghai Protects Undersea Telecom Cables for APECShanghai has gone to great lengths to protect major undersea fiber optic cables to secure telecommunications links for the Ninth APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting on October 20-21.Altogether there are seven such cables starting from Shanghai that link China and the world. The amount of international telecommunications connections in Shanghai accounts for half of the country's total and two thirds of telecommunications are transmitted via these undersea cables. However, the cables go under areas used by fishing and sailing vessels, which can easily sever the telecommunications links. Some serious accidents happened earlier this year and last month resulting in broken telecommunications. This year, there was an increase in fishing during the flood season in Autumn. During the last flood, officials and staff from Shanghai Telecom went to the seashore to watch the situation while handing out pamphlets asking fishermen to work two sea miles away from the protected areas. More than 400 million yuan (48 million U. S. dollars) has been invested in 37 ships to protect the cables. Major cables were buried twice as deep last year, from 1.5 meters to 3 meters, to avoid being caught by fishing nets and anchors. Meanwhile, more radar stations have been set up in neighboring Zhejiang Province to watch the cables closely. Less damage to these cables has been reported this year, sources said. |
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