New undersea cable to connect Vietnam, Singapore

In a memorandum signed on Thursday by Viettel and Singtel, the new undersea cable would have branches connecting with Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia. It will be the first direct cable created by Vietnamese and Singapore units, and it will be the shortest route connecting Vietnam with the largest data center in Southeast Asia.

Ooi Seng Keat, vice chairman of Singtel, said the VTS cable would satisfy increasing demand for better bandwidth and low latency for Internet connections.

The exact capacity of the cable has yet to be announced, but the two sides said the cable would add hundreds of Tbps to total international data capacity.

Vietnam currently aims to be a digital hub in accordance with an agenda for the development of international cables until 2030, issued by the Ministry of Information and Communication. To realize such a goal, Vietnam would need to increase its number of undersea cables to at least 15, with a total data capacity at 334 Tbps at the minimum. At least two of the cables must be owned by Vietnamese businesses, according to the plan.

Vietnam currently has five undersea cables. However, as they are operated by consortiums, potential problems can be difficult to be resolved.