Is the long-running saga of the five broken undersea cables linking Vietnam with the world now over? Regional reports suggest it may be, at least for now.
Repair efforts have apparently now finished on all five broken undersea cables linking Vietnam with the world, according to a representative of an ISP in Vietnam this week who was not identified.
The Intra-Asia (IA), SMW3, and Asia Pacific Gateway (APG) cable systems were restored in late May and September. SAAG (Asia, America Gateway), a 20,000-kilometre submarine communications cable system connecting Southeast Asia with the United States across the Pacific Ocean via Guam and Hawaii, was fixed in early November. Finally The AAE-1 (Asia-Africa-Euro 1) cable, which broke down on September 27, was fully restored in late November.
But, says news resource VietNamnNet, over the next few years the country will have at least four and as many as six new undersea cables. The Vietnam Telecommunications Authority (VNTA) suggests the new cables will be available by 2030.
We reported earlier this year on the imminent arrival of two of these: SJC 2 and ADC. State-run Viettel hopes to use the ADC cable by the end of the year. Another state-owned telecommunications company, Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group, plans make use of the SJC 2 cable.
Last month saw FPT Telecom, a subsidiary of Financing Promoting Technology, the largest information technology service company in Vietnam, approve an investment initiative for the ALC undersea cable project.
Cable issues have been in the news for some while in Vietnam. As regular readers may be aware, four (out of five) undersea cable routes used by Vietnamese carriers were experiencing issues as long ago as January this year.
