Vietnam to have up to 4 more international cables by 2025

The new cables, outlined in a plan for information and communication infrastructure development for 2021-2030, will ensure that the telecommunications network have high speed and bandwidth, widely available and serve the purposes of digital transformation, digital economy, digital government and national defense.

One of the requirements to achieve such goals is the development of two to four more international cables, according to the plan approved by the government and announced by the Ministry of Information and Communications.

The prioritized locations where the new cables would be connected with the land are areas with existing stations, and there needs to be connections with Vietnam’s major islands and island districts. There will be one cable in the Gulf of Thailand area, with connections to Phu Quoc and other major islands.

Existing land cables will also be maintained and upgraded. By 2025, the total data capacity of international connection among all of Vietnam’s land and sea cables should amount to 60 Tbps, according to the plan.

These infrastructures are expected to ensure high-speed data transference between Vietnam and the rest of the world, share the burden with existing international cables, improve the security of the network, and ensure Internet connections for users.

By 2025, all families in Vietnam must be able to gain access to fiber connections, and 90% of users must be able to gain access to fixed Internet connections at 200 Mpbs, and 90% of socio-economic organizations gain access to Internet connections of 1 Gbps.

Mobile Internet would have a minimum download speed at 40 Mbps for 4G networks, and 100 Mbps for 5G networks. All adults will possess smartphones.

Vietnam currently has five undersea cables connecting with the rest of the world, with a capacity at 18.7 Tbps, but connections are often disrupted. In January last year, issues on all five cables caused a 75% loss in capacity, impeding users’ connections.