Major Internet service providers have recovered about 80% of their international connection capacity, with no serious congestion reports received today, the first business day after the New Year holiday, the Office of the Telecommunications Authority says.

Access to overseas websites is generally slower than usual. During normal office hours, business users should find Internet services generally acceptable. 

It may take longer for residential service users to access websites in some overseas countries, particularly Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and North America. Some real-time applications such as IP telephony may be affected by the slow response time as the traffic must be re-routed. IDD and roaming services functioned normally today.

According to the latest schedule, one damaged submarine cable system will be brought back to normal operation by mid-January. The repair of the other damaged systems is expected to be completed progressively by the end of January or the beginning of February, if the weather permits.

People are urged to minimise non-essential visits to overseas websites, uploading or downloading large files to and from these websites, and other non-essential activities that demand large bandwidth over international connections.