Repairs on Vietnam's two undersea cables to take another month

The operator of Asia Pacific Gateway (APG), which links Vietnam with Hong Kong and Japan, has notified local service providers that repairs on the disruption-prone cable are expected to be completed on February 22, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

Issues with branches of the Intra Asia (IA) cable connecting Vietnam with Hong Kong and other parts of Asia, which experienced technical problems starting January 1, are scheduled for completion a day earlier, on February 21. Repair works on the branches will start on February 1.

With disruptions in two cables at the same time, Vietnamese internet service providers have diverted traffic to the four remaining undersea cables to maintain international connections.

In recent years, Vietnam's undersea cables have experienced technical problems frequently, affecting internet service quality.

Vietnam, where more than 64 percent of the population is online, has six submarine cable systems, plus a 120 gigabit channel that runs overland through China.

The APG cable, officially launched in December 2016, is capable of providing bandwidths of up to 54 Tbps (Terabit per second). It runs for around 10,400 km, with connection points in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The IA cable, which transfers data between Vietnam and Europe, North America and South America, began operations in January 2009.