China Telecom Confirms Severed Cables Caused Alipay Disruption

(Beijing) – China Telecom has told Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. that the accidental cutting of cables by construction workers at a site in Hangzhou was the reason the Alipay online payment service suffered a recent 150-minute glitch.

Alipay stopped working for about 2½ hours on the afternoon of May 27. At the time, it blamed shutdown on construction workers cutting a telecom company's cables in the eastern city's Xiaoshan District.