The two impaired undersea cables, which slowed Internet traffic from Asia to the US to a crawl last Thursday, are expected to be fully repaired next week.
Two Japanese repair boats arrived at the location of the incident over the weekend, said a China Telecom spokesperson in a telephone interview.
"It will take a week to repair the cables provided that weather conditions are fair," he said, adding that the completion date could be delayed by choppy waters.
The fault, which occurred on the China-US and SEA-ME-WE3 cables about 30 km off Shantou in China, could have been due to shipping vessels dragging their anchors along the sea bed, said telecommunications service provider Reach Communications spokesperson Martin Ratia.
According to the China Telecom spokesperson, ships could be anchoring themselves in preparation for a typhoon last Friday.