Taiwan's Ministry of Digital Affairs has blamed "natural deterioration" as the reason for the latest subsea cable outages to impact the island.
As reported by Reuters, the government said that subsea cables to the Matsu Islands, which lie close to the coast of China, were disconnected due to "natural deterioration." It's since activated back-up communications.
According to government officials, the two cables that connect Matsu with the main Taiwan island were completely cut off early January 22 and were expected to be restored by the end of next month.
It's the latest subsea cable outage to impact Taiwan, following a subsea cable that was damaged earlier this month, which authorities blamed on China.
However, Deputy Digital Minister Chiueh Herming told journalists that no "suspicious" ships were detected when the cables went offline.
Instead, Herming has said the likely cause was "natural deterioration."
He also stated that Taiwan has already reported four cases of malfunctions to sea cables so far this year, compared to three in the two previous years.
Reuters noted that the backup communications, which includes microwave communications will enable partial Internet connectivity to resume in the islands, which is home to around 14,000 people.
A Chinese fishing vessel was previously blamed for causing damage to the Taiwan-Matsu No. 2 cable, which links the main island of Formosa to the Taiwan-controlled Matsu Islands, back in 2023. Taiwan's National Communications Commission (NCC) said at the time that the vessel severed the cable.
Earlier this month, four fibers of a Chunghwa Telecom-operated subsea cable were damaged off the coast at Yehliu, New Taipei City, on January 3, 2025.
The Cameroon-registered cargo ship Shunxin 39 was docked in the port of Keelung in Taiwan when it allegedly damaged the cable as it left for South Korea.
At the end of last year, international investigators suspected that the Yi Peng 3 ship purposefully sailed over the C-Lion1 Helsinki-Rostock and BCS East-West link cables in the Baltic Sea.
In October 2023, the Chinese ship Newnew Polar Bear was suspected of damaging cables and an undersea pipeline between Finland and Estonia.
