Faulty undersea cable slows internet speed in Việt Nam again

A woman in HCM City uses her smartphone to access the internet for health information. — VNA/VnExpress News Photo for illustration

HÀ NỘI — The Asia Pacific Gateway (APG) undersea cable, which connects eight countries and territories in the region, is facing problems with its S1.7 section, about 910km from Southeast Asia.

The fault was detected at 9pm on April 15, the Internet Service Provider said on April 17, noting that there had been no information about the repair work from the operator so far.

Việt Nam’s undersea internet cables suffer disruptions around 10 times a year, with each lasting for about a month (at which time the data flow is re-routed to other cables).

The APG cable, officially launched in December 2016, is capable of providing bandwidths of up to 54 tbps (terabits per second). It runs 10,400km (6,460 miles) under the Pacific Ocean, linking Japan with Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, the Republic of Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Việt Nam.

The cable has the investment participation of Vietnamese telecommunication companies like the State-run Việt Nam Telecommunications Group, the military-run Viettel, and two private groups FPT Telecom and CMC Telecom.

Việt Nam has among the highest internet usage and development speed in the world.

As of January 2021, out of its population of over 96 million people, the number of internet users reached approximately 69 million, according to survey by German data portal Statista. — VnExpress News