SGGP
It is indisputable that socio -economic activities and management at all levels today depend on the internet and telecommunications technology. Without new, rapid and large investments, the “crises” of broken submarine cables and international disconnections will continue.
Currently, Vietnamese telecommunications enterprises are participating in the exploitation of 5 international submarine optical cable lines, including Asia America Gateway (AAG), Asia Pacific Gateway (APG), SMW3 (also known as SEA - ME - WE3), Intra Asia (IA, also known as Lien A) and Asia - Africa - Euro 1 (AAE-1). Recently, except for SMW3, the remaining 4 lines all encountered problems, with the APG line losing connection completely.
The above incidents caused the loss of about 75% of Vietnam's international connections and in early February, a "crisis" occurred in Vietnam's international internet connections. After the Ministry of Information and Communications established a steering committee to coordinate and resolve the incident, the "crisis" gradually subsided, international connections gradually stabilized and basically no longer "lost the network".
Following the direction of the Ministry of Information and Communications, network operators have responded and shared traffic with each other. Specifically, Viettel has shared 100Gbps of international internet connection with VNPT. Along with that, network operators have increased the purchase of international connection capacity via the land fiber optic cable system.
Along with the 5 submarine cable lines mentioned above, Viettel is exploiting 2 land cable lines, namely Vietnam - China and Vietnam - Laos - Cambodia, to ensure connection options. VNPT also has a CSC land cable line connecting Lang Son to China. These are backup systems of Viettel and VNPT, which have been fully exploited in the past. Viettel and VNPT have also joined alliances to invest in building 2 new submarine cable lines, SJC2 and ADC.
It is expected that this year, these two submarine cable lines will be completed and put into operation. These are two submarine cable lines that apply the latest technology, so the capacity and cost are both likely to be better than the current submarine cable lines. When the new submarine cable lines are put into operation, Vietnam's dependence on the current submarine cable lines will decrease.
In recent years, Vietnam's internet infrastructure has developed rapidly and gradually improved, but compared to many countries in the region, it is still at a low level. Specifically, Vietnam's international internet connection mainly depends on 5 submarine optical cables.
Connecting 3 land lines as well as VNPT's Vinasat satellite system, is only for backup purposes, used in case of emergency. Meanwhile, Singapore has 30 submarine fiber optic lines, Malaysia has 22 lines and Thailand has 10 lines.
According to some domestic internet service providers, Vietnam's current infrastructure is still not enough to serve subscribers in the long term. When there is a cable break, some service providers face difficulties because they do not have enough infrastructure to respond; while user demand is increasing, with an average increase of 30% per year, increasing the number of international submarine optical cables is a necessary solution.
It can be affirmed that in 2023, Vietnam will have 7 international submarine optical cable lines, but that is still not enough, more is needed. In addition, along with purchasing additional international connection capacity on current land optical cable lines, there is a need to invest in and build new international land optical cable lines.
This is, first of all, the responsibility of telecommunications network operators, along with the determination of the Ministry of Information and Communications and relevant agencies. The incident of broken submarine cables has occurred frequently for many years.
Meanwhile, the current socio-economic activities and management at all levels… depend on the internet and telecommunications technology, which is indisputable. Without new, rapid and large investments, the “crises” of broken submarine cables and international disconnections will continue.
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