One of Vietnam’s internet cables back to work

A breakage at a section of the IA about 130 km from a shoreline station in Singapore was detected in late January, causing a total loss of international data from Vietnam to Singapore through the cable.

An internet provider said Thursday that the problem had been fixed and the cable is now fully recovered, Voice of Vietnam reported.

The IA is one of five undersea internet cables connecting Vietnam to the rest of the globe.

All four other undersea cables are currently having simultaneous problems.

The Asia Africa Europe 1 (AAE-1) failed last November, causing the loss of all international connection capacity from Vietnam to Hong Kong. It is expected to be fixed from May 2-17.

The Asia America Gateway (AAG) line has also been having problems since December and January. Two AAG branches will be fixed in early May, while another two branches are not on the repair schedule yet.

The Asia Pacific Gateway (APG) internet cable, which connects Vietnam with the rest of Asia, has repeatedly encountered a variety of technical problems between last December and April this year.

In late February, the SMW3 cable connecting Vietnam with Singapore was found to be malfunctioning.

A telecommunications expert who requested anonymity told VnExpress last month that 80% of users in Vietnam use the Internet for Google, Facebook, Netflix and YouTube, and that when the country’s cables suffer technical problems, connections to those foreign services are seriously affected.

On February 9, the Ministry of Information and Communications directed internet operators to increase on-land network capacity and share and support each other in international telecommunications and internet service traffic. The situation has improved since then, but many users say internet quality in Vietnam is still poor.

The ministry aims for Vietnam to have a total of 10 undersea cable lines by 2026. Of the 10, three will be owned by domestic enterprises.