China earthquake disrupts China Mobile service

China Mobile has suffered a service interruption after 15 base stations were damaged in an earthquake that hit China's Gansu province on Monday morning.

According to a China Daily report Monday, a 6.6 magnitude earthquake struck Northwest China's Gansu province at 7.45am local time, with the epicenter hitting the borders between the Minxian and Zhangxian counties.

This triggered a power failure which caused the telco's base stations in the region to stop operating, the report said.

China Mobile's Gansu branch launched its natural disaster emergency plan and dispatched emergency teams to fix cables and regenerate power, the report noted, adding this also meant some mobile phones in the region could not be reached.

A 7 magnitude earthquake which hit China's Sichuan province in April also disrupted services at China Mobile--along with two other local telcos, China Telecom and China Unicom--and local Internet companies. The companies then said they restored or partially restored services, and offered services to help citizens. 

China Mobile also said it had been preparing and upgrading its emergency plans to deal with disasters, since the earthquake which hit Wenchuan county in May 2008.