Internet at snail's pace as cable disruption strikes again

By Chau An    November 28, 2019 | 08:13 pm PT
Internet at snail's pace as cable disruption strikes again
The AAG undersea cable suffers a technical problem on November 14, 2019 on a section off the southern beach town Vung Tau. Photo by Pixabay.
The notorious AAG undersea cable has suffered yet another disruption for nearly two weeks, but no repair schedule is known.

A local internet service provider said Thursday that the Asia America Gateway (AAG) encountered a technical problem on November 14 on a section around 163 kilometers off the southern beach town Vung Tau.

The exact cause of the problem remains unknown and Vietnamese internet service providers haven't received any announcement on repair plans for the disaster-prone cable.

The cable disruption has meant that Vietnamese netizens have been experiencing unstable internet connections, especially when accessing international services like Netflix, YouTube and Facebook.

Last August, the notorious cable was disrupted due to a shunting fault and it took more than two weeks to fix it.

Connected in November 2009, the $560-million AAG cable handles more than 60 percent of the country's international internet traffic. The system runs more than 20,000 kilometers (12,420 miles), connecting Southeast Asia and the U.S., passing through Brunei, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Since its debut, the cable has encountered a very high risk of rupture and been under frequent repair, affecting all service providers in Vietnam.

Vietnam currently has six submarine cable systems, as well as a 120 gigabit channel that runs overland through China.

With download speed of 7.02 megabytes per second, internet speed in Vietnam is ranked 89th out of 207 countries and territories, down 14 places from last year, according to a survey done by Cable, a U.K. broadband, TV, phone and mobile provider.

 
 
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