Smart Communications on Wednesday advised the public that its international voice and SMS services as well as broadband Internet service have been affected by double breaks in fiber-optic cables between China-Taiwan and Malaysia-Singapore.

Arlyn Samaniego of the Smart Communications public affairs office said affected services include international voice and SMS, as well as Internet services under Smart Bro, and Smart Bro Plug-It.

"Subscribers may experience difficulty in initiating or receiving overseas calls, and sending or receiving text messages abroad. Smart Bro subscribers, on the other hand, may encounter slow or intermittent Internet connection, and difficulty in accessing Web sites hosted overseas," Samaniego said in a press statement.

"We are still awaiting word on the cause of the fiber cuts.  In the meantime, SMART would like to assure the general public that close coordination is on-going with our network counterparts abroad to aid in restoring normal services as soon as possible."

Smart Communications Inc. has over 38 million mobile phone subscribers and 1.2 million in broadband subscribers as of June 30, 2009.