(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-05-30 12:21

BEIJING -- Preliminary estimates showed the May 12 earthquake that jolted southwest China has caused a loss of 6.72 billion yuan ($960 million) to the country's communication industry, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said Friday.

By 3 pm Thursday, eight employees of local telecom companies in the quake-stricken Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces had been confirmed dead, with 69 injured and 34 missing.

A total of 3,897 telecom outlets in the quake zone had reported losses. The devastating quake had paralyzed 28,714 mobile communication base stations, pulled apart cables with a length of 28,765 kilometers and pushed over 142,078 telegraph poles.