For mainland office workers and netizens of all stripes, 2007 has already been a test of patience.

More than a week after an earthquake disrupted access to the Web, office workers struggled with sluggish Internet connections yesterday as they returned from their three-day New Year holiday.

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And they will have to wait a few weeks before the situation improves.

Two major Internet service providers on the mainland China Telecom and China Netcom said it would mid-January before they would be able to fully repair the damage to undersea telecommunications cables caused by the December 26 earthquake off the coast of Taiwan.

The quake, which measured 7.2 on the Richter scale, damaged all nine fiber-optic cables that lie on the ocean floor south of Taiwan, affecting telecommunications traffic between the mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the United States, Southeast Asia and Europe.

Millions of people experienced difficulty and delays log on foreign Web sites due to high volumes of traffic on satellite service providers.

International direct dialling (IDD) calls, mobile phone services, faxes and text messaging services were also affected.

The earthquake left some cables trapped under the seabed and others tangled up, making the repair effort more difficult, the Xinhua News Agency said.

Five ships were dispatched to repair the damaged lines after the quake, it reported.

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