Two submarine cables APG and IA are having problems.

Speaking to VietNamNet reporters on the morning of January 3, a representative of an Internet service provider - ISP in Vietnam said that at present, after the AAE-1 submarine cable has fully restored its capacity, there are still 2 other submarine cables having problems, causing a certain impact on the quality of Vietnam's international Internet service.

Specifically, on the morning of December 31, 2024, the reconfiguration of the source after repairing the S1H5 branch of the AAE1 submarine optical cable line was completed, and international Internet connection to Hong Kong (China) and Singapore on the line was restored.

The two submarine cables currently experiencing problems are APG and IA. Of these, the APG submarine cable has problems on two branches, S1.9 connecting to Malaysia and S8 connecting to Thailand.

Experiencing a new problem since December 26, 2024 on the S1 branch between the segment from Vietnam to Singapore, the IA submarine cable is currently losing all Internet connection capacity between Vietnam and Hong Kong (China) and Singapore.

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Immediately after the submarine cable lines encountered problems, network operators deployed backup plans to minimize the impact and ensure the quality of international Internet services provided to users. Illustration photo: CH

Regarding the repair schedule, the international partner has not yet announced the IA line troubleshooting schedule to ISPs in Vietnam.

Regarding the faults on the APG submarine cable, the problem on branch S8 is expected to be fixed from January 6 to January 10; however, the problem on branch S1.9 has not yet been fixed.

Sharing at the seminar "Commercializing 5G, applying to smart industry" held on December 26, 2024, Mr. Le Ba Tan, Head of Technical Department of Viettel Group emphasized a core issue for network operators is to ensure infrastructure.

However, one of the big challenges for ISPs is connecting to international submarine cables. “This has been a weakness of Vietnam in recent times. We have seen the fragility of some submarine cables. Recovery time when submarine cables have problems is also longer than before,” commented Mr. Le Ba Tan.

Improving the sustainability and safety of international telecommunications infrastructure

In fact, the weakness of international submarine fiber optic cable connections has been clearly recognized by the Ministry of Information and Communications. Specifically, since the middle of last year, the Ministry of Information and Communications has issued a strategy to develop Vietnam's international fiber optic cable system.

The goal set in this strategy is to put into operation at least 10 new submarine optical cable lines by 2030, bringing the total number of submarine optical cable lines in Vietnam to at least 15 lines.

Vietnam's digital infrastructure strategy approved by the Prime Minister in October 2024 identified one of the major orientations as ensuring global communication and data exchange.

Accordingly, in 2025, Vietnam will put at least 2 new submarine optical cable lines into operation, and plans to add at least 8 submarine cable lines by 2030, increasing the total design capacity to meet the minimum "1+2" ​​backup requirement.

The above objectives of Vietnam's digital infrastructure development strategy aim to ensure the sustainability and safety of international telecommunications infrastructure, ensure uninterrupted connections, and enhance international bandwidth capacity.

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Vietnam aims to develop an international fiber optic cable system to build self-reliance in setting up, deploying, and repairing international fiber optic cables, ensuring the safety of Vietnam's Internet network. Illustration photo: MH

Currently, ISPs in Vietnam are exploiting 5 international submarine optical cable lines including AAG, AAE-1, APG, IA and SMW3 with a total usable capacity of more than 20 Tbps and a total available capacity of 34 Tbps.

All five of these submarine cables connect to the East via the East Sea, from six landing stations located in Da Nang, Vung Tau and Quy Nhon.

According to preliminary statistics, on average, each year, the submarine optical cable lines that Vietnam is using encounter about 15 incidents. Before 2022, the repair time for submarine cables lasted from 1 to 2 months per incident. From 2022 to now, the time to fix submarine cable incidents has been longer.

Also at the discussion on December 26, 2024, Head of Viettel Group's Technical Department Le Ba Tan said: "Recently, under the strong direction of the Ministry of Information and Communications, Viettel has presided over the construction of a submarine optical cable connecting to Singapore and will soon plan a number of more submarine optical cable lines to international Hubs to ensure solidity and strengthen the Internet connection infrastructure from Vietnam to the world."

According to Viettel Solutions, the ADC submarine cable, invested by Viettel, was inaugurated in mid-December and network operators in Vietnam are expected to be able to use international Internet services via this new submarine cable early this year.

As the newest submarine cable in the intra-Asian region, ADC is nearly 10,000km long with an initial total capacity of more than 160Tbps. ADC connects to 7 landing stations in countries along the cable route: Japan, Hong Kong (China), China, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam. The landing point of the ADC cable route in Vietnam is Quy Nhon (Binh Dinh).

In terms of design, the cable has an 8-pair fiber configuration on the main Singapore - Hong Kong (China) - Japan axis, using high-density wavelength multiplexing technology and can support the latest technologies in the future.

In particular, ADC is designed to connect directly to the largest data centers in Asia.

ADC Cable has 9 investors. Of which, Viettel is the only investor in Vietnam that owns 1 pair of fibers on the main axis, with a minimum design capacity of 20Tbps and owns all submarine cable branches and landing stations in Vietnam.

When officially put into operation, ADC will be the submarine cable with the largest capacity in Vietnam, twice as large as the current largest cable line, AAE-1.

The foundation for Vietnam to become a modern, smart digital nation The "Digital Infrastructure Strategy to 2025 and Vision to 2030" recently approved by the Prime Minister clearly identifies digital infrastructure as the foundation for Vietnam to become a modern, smart digital nation.