Internet service was disrupted in South-East Asia this week after Typhoon Morakot, the storm ravaging Taiwan that has reportedly claimed over 100 lives so far, caused three undersea telecommunications cables to be cut.

According to Taiwanese telco Chunghwa Telecom, the typhoon trigged underwater landslides that cut three fibre-optic cables that connect the island to mainland China.

The burden of extra traffic now being routed through other cables is causing Internet connectivity in China and around South-East Asia to slow.

In the Philippines, a popular offshore call-centre destination, telecommunications provider Smart Communications said that its customers were encountering slow wireless Internet services and disrupted phone calls.