Repairs to Vietnam's submarine internet cables set for completion this weekend

Vietnam's internet connection should be back up to speed when repair work on both the Asia America Gateway (AAG) and the Intra Asia (IA) undersea cable systems that connect the country with the rest of the world is completed at the end of this weekend, VietnamPlus quoted service providers as saying.

Both the AAG and the IA, as well as the SEA-ME-WE3 (SMW3) undersea cable system, reported problems on August 27. While the issue with the SMW3 was quickly resolved, the AAG was found to have been ruptured in two places and the IA in one place.

The rupture on a section of the AAG connecting Vietnam and Hong Kong was fixed on Monday. Meanwhile, work on a rupture along a section connecting Hong Kong and the Philippines does not start until Wednesday and is expected to be completed by Friday, VietnamPlus reported.

One internet service provider said 85 percent of its lost bandwidth have been restored on the AAG following the repair work.

Repair work on the IA started on Tuesday and will be completed by Saturday.

The infamous AAG has ruptured three times this year, while the IA has ruptured four times.

Connected in November 2009, the $560-million AAG with a capacity of 2 terabits/second accounts for more than 60 percent of the country’s international internet traffic.

With a length of over 20,000 kilometers (12,420 miles), the cable connects Southeast Asia and the U.S., passing through Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Brunei, Hong Kong and the Philippines.

The 6,800-kilometer (4,200 miles) IA, with an investment of $200 million, was also officially launched in November 2009, connecting Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Japan.

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

Around 60 percent of the country’s population of nearly 92 million are online.