Repairs for undersea internet cables to last from March to April
Domestic internet service providers sai don February 7 that the Network Operation Center (NOC) Services announced the repairs scheduled for three broken undersea cables that have resulted in slowed connections in Vietnam in the last few weeks.
A worker fixes a rupture on a submarine cable. (Photo: ictnews.vietnamnet.vn)
Hanoi (VNA) - Domestic internet service providerssaid on February 7 that the Network Operation Centre (NOC) Servicesannounced the repairs scheduled for three broken undersea cables that haveresulted in slowed connections in Vietnam in the last few weeks.
Four out of five submarine internet cables connecting Vietnamand the world are simultaneously seeing issues, an unprecedented occurrence.
According to the plan, the disruption on the S6 line of theAsia Pacific Gateway (APG) cable will undergo fixes between March 22-27, whilerepairs on the S9 line will be conducted on April 5-9.
The ruptures on the Asia, America Gateway (AAG) will be repairedbetween March 30 and April 4.
Repairs for the 6,800km Intra Asia cable are slated for mid-March,as registration and licensing of ships for the maintenance of the line arestill underway.
There is also a problem with the Asia-Africa-Euro 1 (AAE-1) cablenear Hong Kong (China) but the NOC has not announced a repair timeline.
This means that internet connection quality between Vietnam andthe world will only improve towards the end of March, even mid-April.
The only undersea cable that is still operating normally is theSoutheast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 3 (SMW-3), but this is an old cablewith low capacity and does not contribute much to Vietnam's internet traffic tooverseas servers.
There have been about 10 incidents on undersea fibre opticcables each year in the last decade. A representative of the Vietnam InternetAssociation said that incidents on fibre optic lines are not rare but alsounpredictable.
Previously, when only one or two cable lines had problemsconcurrently, Vietnamese internet providers could quickly offload internettraffic between cable lines.
Currently, land-based internet cables cannot be upgraded quicklydue to equipment limitations and other factors.
Troubleshooting on undersea fibre optic cables depends heavily onthe severity of the problem, the weather at sea, the time it takes to getpermission to access the waters of countries to carry out repairs, and manyother factors. Therefore, instability and slow connection speeds willpersist in the weeks to come.
Representatives of major network operators in Vietnam - includingViettel, VNPT and FPT - are committed to actively working with cablemanagers and international partners to quickly handle and ensure serviceprovision for customers./.
Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Pham Duc Long has highlighted the internet as a crucial part of infrastructure and the backbone of digital transformation.
Three international undersea cables out of the primary five connecting Vietnam to the world are suffering issues, which could seriously impact connection speed and reliability.
Vietnamese internet service providers have confirmed that four out of five submarine internet cables that connect the country to the world are experiencing issues, seriously affecting performance and reliability.
Vietnam needs at least two to three more undersea cable routes in the next five years to meet growing demand, said General Secretary of the Vietnam Internet Association (VIA) Vu The Binh.
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A worker fixes a rupture on a submarine cable. (Photo: ictnews.vietnamnet.vn) 
