The strategic alliance covers exploration and joint development and production of some oil and gas fields in Bohai Bay and the exploration, development and production of gas reserves in part of the Xihu Trough in the East China Sea. The situation is improving in other areas, as well. These profits should trickle down to the region's underwater contractors. Damaged As for subsea telecommunications support, the Asian region is one of the busiest and most profitable in the world. The demand across the region is intense.
Japan alone is second only to the United States in number of Internet users.
However, unlike in the offshore oil and gas industry, specific information about subsea telecom projects and the contractors working on them is extremely hard to come by. One reason for this is that many projects are initiated and subsidized by governments, which are traditionally secretive about such matters. The submarine cable was damaged on November 20, 2000. Telstra, the country's main Internet service provider with 650,000 customers, redirected its traffic to several other smaller connections to the Internet following the break, quickly restoring approximately one-third of its normal service capacity. Apparently voice telephone service was not as seriously affected because it can be more easily diverted to wireless carriers.