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China Mobile to restore service soon for quake relief

By Hao Zhou (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-05-23 16:59

"China Mobile will provide mobile services, including high quality network service and normal simple operational outlets, for temporary residential areas accommodating the homeless from the quake disaster, in one month and no later than the end of June," promised Wang Jianzhou, president of China Mobile.

After the quake, mobile dialing frequency by Sichuan local users has 10 times higher than usual, and long-distance calls from other Chinese areas to Sichuan increased between five and six fold. China Mobile has dispatched a total of 18,406 repair workers, 8,494 to Sichuan Province, 6,506 to Gansu Province, and 3,406 to Shaanxi Province.

So far, China Mobile has reopened mobile services in 105 of 169 villages and towns most affected by the earthquake. Still, some 570 base stations are out of operation, but the number has significantly dropped from the original 4,457 just after the quake.

It still depends to fully restore the mobile services to pre-quake level. Currently, cables can only be set next to the roads, but not embedded or lifted off the ground. We have to keep pace with the road and urban reconstruction work, said Wang.

During the quake relief efforts, China Mobile introduced three approaches, setting up satellite base stations via airdrops, deploying emergency communication vehicles, and repairing cables and local base stations.

By May 21, nine days after the deadly quake, China Mobile had set up satellite base stations in 16 of the worst-hit counties like Wenchuan, Beichuan, Pingwu, and Qingxian, and had 33 emergency communication vehicles across Sichuan.

The telecom industry has suffered direct losses from the quake of almost 3 billion yuan ($432.28 million), disclosed the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Wednesday. A total of 700 million yuan has been used and 32,000 workers have been sent out to help in the effort to overcome the disaster.