Taiwan earthquake disrupts VoIP

Earthquakes recently caused massive problems for the communications industry and internet systems in the Taiwan area. Other countries need to learn from this disaster in order to prepare for the possibility of one of their own.

Being unprepared is part of the reason that the region was hit so hard by the natural disaster. It effected communications globally – disrupting businesses, causing revenue declines, and hindering rescue efforts.

Two years ago, the United State learned first hand just what Mother Nature could do to the modern day conveniences of communication. When Hurricane Katrina hit the gulf coast region of the US in September of 2005, even emergency services were unable to talk to one another.

Recover was a long hard road, and is still not complete in all areas. The Taiwan region is facing the same battle.

One of the ways the communication snag may be over come is with the use of Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP). Siemens Group suffered no severe downtime after the earthquake that hit on December 27, 2006 because of its use of VOIP technology.

Traditional phone calls can only be made as long as a physical connection exists. In times of natural disaster, it is unlikely that those connections can remain intake. During the earthquake, even the underground lines were severed. VOIP would not be hindered in the same manner.

VOIP send information through many routes until it arrives at its destination and is reassembled.