Monday's strong earthquake in southwest China might have damaged power supplies to local telecommunications facilities, which affected cell phone services, network operators said in Beijing.

Staff at China Mobile and China Unicom told Xinhua that cell phone service in the southwestern Sichuan and northwestern Shaanxi provinces were affected by the earthquake.

They said that an investigation was under way.

A surge in call volume following the quake could have also slowed the cell phone network, they said.

An earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale jolted Wenchuan County of Sichuan Province at 2:28 p.m. Monday. Tremors were felt in a large part of China.

(Xinhua News Agency May 12, 2008)