The powerful Japan earthquake last week damaged some communication cables that link many countries in the Asia-Pacific region and to the mainland America.

Telstra International said on Thursday that a number of cables that connect Australia and Japan have been either disturbed or damaged by the magnitude 8.9 tremor and the ensuing tsunami waves it triggered.

The company, however, said that most of the cables have been restored as early as Tuesday though it admitted that "some infrastructure and service disruption," were felt by its network immediately after the earthquake struck Japan.

To circumvent the communication difficulties, Telstra was reported to have utilised the intact undersea cables though it clarified that its Australia-Japan link and the Reach North Asia Loop subsea cables remained operating despite the shock delivered by the twin disasters.

The telco confirmed too that substantial number of cable links were hit by the tectonic plates disturbance, which could have disrupted the region's link to the United States and other key cities around the world that use Japan as a sort of global communication hub.

Despite the worsening situation in Japan, further complicated by the imminent danger of a nuclear meltdown in the Fukushima power plants, Telstra said that flying out its workers stationed in Tokyo has yet to be implemented but remains an option.

The company said that it is coordinating "closely with the local management team to monitor the situation and we will continue to support our employees throughout this extremely difficult time."

Meanwhile, it appears that the cable disruption has affected the Korean peninsula too as Korea Telecom issued confirmation that a number of its cable linking the US and Japan were hit by the tremor. The problem also struck the networks of Pacific Crossing and StarHub, reports said.

In Taiwan, Chunghwa Telecom has reported that its APCN-2 and Japan-US undersea cables, serving as the country's voice and data links with the US, were also damaged by the great earthquake.

Chunghwa said that the disturbance slashed its network's bandwidth by about 30 percent though the fluctuation, it clarified, hardly affected its customers, adding that restoration works may take weeks to complete.