Despite tsunami and Quakes, Japan remains online

In spite of a swath of devastation caused by Friday's earthquake and tsunami, Japan's Internet remains strong.

As Japan continues to suffer from ongoing damage, devastation and heartache for lost and departed loved ones caused by Friday’s monstrous 8.9-magnitude earthqauke and the resulting tsunami, one thing remains constant: an Internet connection..

According to All Things Digital, “only a small fraction” of Japan’s Internet connections were affected by the horrific wrath wrought upon the island nation by Mother Nature. Because of this fortunate happenstance, the country’s vital communication systems have stayed constant, enabling those in Japan to communicate with one another and the world at large.

Japan’s Internet health report comes via research firm Renesys, which shows that of the 6,000 links connecting Japan’s Internet to the rest of the world, only about 100 were temporarily disabled. And, as Renesys’ James Crowie notes on the company blog, “that number has actually decreased in the hours since the event.”.

Internet service providers in Japan have, of course, reported “congrestion and drops in traffic” due to the quake and tsunami, says Crowie. But most websites are online and operational, “and the Internet is available to support critical communications.”.

The Internet situation in Japan is vastly better than that of the 2006 Taiwan earthquake, which caused a significant number of the underwater cables that carry the Internet to break, resulting in major disruptions..

Survival of Japan’s Internet, says Cowie, is most likely due to the “dense web of domestic and international connectivity” built by Japanese engineers “that is among the richest and most diverse on earth.”.

While Internet connectivity stands strong, the situation in Japan remains dire..

As many as 10,000 people — more than half the population — in the decimated seaside town of Minamisanriku are missing. And the death toll througout the country has climed to 680, with many more still lost. Countless more are homeless or displaced.

The city of Sendai, located nearest the epicenter of the quake, lies awash in the deadly waters of the tsunami that reached as far as three miles inland. Parts of that city continue to burn.

As the country begins recovery attempts from Friday’s disaster, another calamity looms at the damaged nuclear power plant in Fukushima city, where workers flushed the reactor with sea water on Saturday in an attempt to prevent a complete meltdown.

Japan’s government has evacuated a 12 mile radius around Fukushima due to dangers of radiation contamination. Some have already been contaminated. And the panic caused by a potential nuclear catastrophe has left officials and residents alike with  additional hardship on top of disaster.source

Internet Users Doubled in 2010

Only 2.5% of total mobile subscribers are using mobile internet services according to the data provided by the Georgian National Communications Commission.  
According to the same data, the total number of mobile internet users was 445,489 as of 2010, out of which 417,640 subscribers were using GPRS internet, 19,656 - WAP/GPRS service and the remaining 8,193 were using HSDPA internet service.
 
The figures of mobile users have doubled compared to the year 2008 when total mobile internet service users were 215,701. The figures increased in 2009 - reaching 284,633 subscribers.
 
The total income from mobile internet service reached 3,773,588 GEL as of the first quarter of 2010. Total income exceeded 14 million GEL in 2009 and 12 million GEL in 2008.
 
As representatives of telecommunication companies said, the demand for mobile internet has doubled during the past two years especially.
 
“Bali is really now a dating service, if you really look at what the kids are doing with Bali they are spending more time on the internet than they are on the phone, so what we find is that we have invested a huge amount of money into our date network and we are constantly upgrading it, we are finding that young people are now using dating services more and more. It used to be SMS, but now it’s facebook, and email, chat, basically using your telephone as a computer,” said David Lee, General Director of Magticom.
 
Beeline told the FINANCIAL that demand for mobile internet approximately doubled during 2010.
 
“Demand for mobile internet has rapidly grown during the last few years, especially in the last 2 years. It is related to growing tourism infrastructure, because it is not possible to find access to fixed internet (ADLS, fiber optics, etc) everywhere, the only way to connect to the internet is via mobile phone,” a Beeline spokesperson told us. 
 
More than 20% of all Beeline subscribers use the internet on a regular basis.
 
The majority of mobile internet users are the teenage and middle aged segments of the population, basically surfing social network pages and checking emails.
 
“The reason for increased demand for mobile internet service is mainly the vast availability of the mobile networks, and subscribers’ demand for mobile services such as email and surfing ability on-the-go,” declared Irakli Lobzhanidze, Marketing Manager at Magticom.
 
As Lobzhanidze added the most surfed web pages are social networks such as facebook, internet search sites and mail.
“People have started to travel all over Georgia. Not only the local population needs internet access, but there are a lot of tourists coming to Georgia who use the internet even via Roaming. As well as that, business is expanding and internet connection is now needed not only in the main cities, but also in the more remote regions in the country. In parallel such community sites as facebook, Odnoklassniki and Skype which tie customers together so strongly have all become so well established, that the majority nowadays can’t live without using the internet for communication,” added Teona Bagdavadze, Beeline spokesperson. source