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Internet access in Vietnam will not be back to full speed until August 21, a local internet provider said on Saturday, meaning surfers should brace themselves for slow connections for another two weeks.
The Asia America Gateway (AAG), the major submarine cable that connects Vietnam with the U.S., ruptured yet again on August 2. This year, the cable system has already experienced problems in March and June, heavily affecting outbound internet traffic.
The AAG operation center said that Typhoon Nida, which swept across southern China earlier this week, had caused the damage, and bad weather has hampered maintenance work.
Vietnam has four submarine cable systems. The AAG was connected in November 2009 with a length of over 20,000 kilometers and a design capacity of 2 terabit/second, directly connecting Southeast Asia with the U.S. across the Pacific Ocean via Guam and Hawaii.
In 2015 alone, the AAG ruptured three times, while in 2014 it went down twice.
In addition to submarine cable systems, Vietnam has a land-based system with a capacity of 120 gigabit/second that goes through China, and there are plans to build another one.
But still, the AAG is the major undersea cable that provides Vietnam with a strong international internet connection.
Nearly 49 million people, more than half of Vietnam's population of 90 million, were online as of June 30, 2016, according to statistics compiled by Internet World Stats.
Related news:
> Vietnam’s internet cable ruptures, yet again
> Hanoi to roll out free, city-wide wi-fi
