Vietnam is currently experiencing disruptions in internet connectivity due to damaged undersea cable. Decreased internet bandwidth has affected the country since Tuesday afternoon, with people complaining of slow access to websites like Facebook.
Damage to Asia Pacific Gateway (APG) cable was detected late Monday, but APG operators have yet to give a concrete timeline of repair activities. APG runs 10,400 kilometers under the Pacific Ocean, linking Japan with Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Users of domestic internet service providers, including FTP, Viettel, and VNPT, will probably experience slow internet speeds and connectivity issues until the operators repair the cable, website Crisis24 reported. Issues are especially likely for users who access websites and services hosted outside of Vietnam.
“Consider alternative modes of communication, such as satellite connections, for critical business operations,” Crisis24 advised.
A local Internet provider told VnExpress that a break has occurred in the cable’s S3 branch, about 430 kilometers from China, causing disruptions in connecting with foreign-hosted websites. Access to streaming site Netflix and social media platform Twitter are reportedly slow. Many Internet users also complained about connectivity issues with online games.
Vietnam also experienced Internet disruptions in April and February, which took weeks to resolve.
The country relies on multiple submarine cable systems — APG, Asia American Gateway (AAG), Intra Asia (IA), SMW3, and Asia-Africa-Europe 1 (AAE-1) — for international connection. AAG, which runs more than 20,000 kilometers connecting Southeast Asia with the US, handles more than 60% of the country’s international Internet traffic.
Last year, a fault on the S1H branch of AAG affected about 15 percent of the total connection capacity from Vietnam to Singapore and Hong Kong. It took nearly 15 days for the repair to be completed.
With more than 69 million Internet users, Vietnam is considered one of the countries with the highest Internet usage and speed. Ookla, owner of Speedtest.net, reported that in Q2 of 2021, Vietnam mobile internet providers may have seemed to improve the quality of their services from the 38.40 Mbps download and 18.04 upload speeds, it’s now 43.02 Mbps and 19.82 Mbps, respectively.
The report also revealed Viettel was the fastest mobile operator among top providers with a Speed Score™ of 44.16 on modern chipsets. Viettel uses APG cable.As Vietnam pushes for fast digital transformation, the use of the Internet has now become an integral part of everyday life. The thriving e-commerce sector, as well as food delivery, transportation, and financial services, all rely on the Internet.