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China Unicom racing to restore services

By Lillian Liu (HK Edition) (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-17 09:58

"The phone networks in the most-damaged counties, Wenchuan and Beichuan, have been restored," Chang said at a press conference in Hong Kong Friday night after flying from Shenzhen to Sichuan on Thursday.

He said phones in Maoxian were expected to be back on line that night.

Chang said he was going to fly back to Sichuan soon after the Hong Kong meeting.

The mobile operator has kicked off the national emergency telecom system and gathered emergency telecom vehicles and technicians from its branches in adjacent provinces and sent them to disaster areas.

But the phone system is still heavily strained, particularly by people trying to see if their loved ones are safe.

"The phone network is not designed for massive usage like it has seen these last few days," Chang said. "Callers may have difficulties connecting as the lines are extremely busy."

Yang Juan, a 32-year-old office secretary who works and lives in Mianyang, about 96 km northeast of Chengdu, told China Daily that besides delivering food and drinks to refugee camps, she has spent most of her days answering phone calls.

"Our Internet and telephones have resumed working, and I am receiving phone calls all the time from worried family, friends and old colleagues."

Chang said all domestic phone calls to Sichuan are free of charge at the moment, and the company's profits will not be badly affected.

"The total losses from the disaster are not yet known," Chang said. "And we will do our best to increase profits in other sectors to offset the losses."

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