By the end of May 2023, the problem with the AAG submarine cable was fixed, and the speed and quality of Vietnam's international internet connection returned to normal. AAG is one of five international submarine optical cable lines that account for the majority of internet connection capacity from Vietnam to the world, along with four other lines including SMW3, AAE-1, APG and IA (also known as Lien A).

At the same time, AAG is also the cable line that directly connects Southeast Asia with the US. This is one of the important cable lines with good prices for Vietnamese network operators to connect internationally.

Recently, the AAG submarine cable encountered problems in February 2022 and June 2022 on branch cables in both directions connecting to Hong Kong (China), China and Singapore.

Completed repair of 4/5 submarine cables, stable international Internet. Illustrative photo.

The IA and SMW3 submarine cables completed repairs in April. Then, on May 20, the incident that occurred at the end of November 2022 on the S1H segment of the AAE-1 cable line was also resolved, fully restoring capacity.

With the completion of repairs on four submarine cables and the restoration of normal operations, the quality of Vietnam's internet services has improved as internet traffic has more connection options and better latency. Telecommunications operators will be more flexible in directing traffic, ensuring service quality and enhancing the experience for internet users.

At the May press conference of the Ministry of Information and Communications, Director of the Telecommunications Department Nguyen Thanh Phuc said that the incident that occurred simultaneously with all five submarine optical cable lines recently was a force majeure, affecting not only Vietnam but also countries in the region that use these cables. The Telecommunications Department also said that the remaining three cable lines will be repaired in May and June.

Previously, in early 2023, all five international submarine cable lines experienced problems. This rare situation caused certain impacts on the quality of Vietnam's international Internet connection services, and also directly impacted the business operations of technology enterprises.

Immediately after the incident, the Telecommunications Department directed businesses to implement many solutions such as proactively and quickly coordinating with members of the cable system that had the incident, measuring, determining the location and type of the incident to carry out repairs as soon as possible. At the same time, coordinating with foreign partners to purchase additional capacity of land cables to expand capacity and transfer traffic.

HONG QUANG