The snail-paced Internet connection in Vietnam, caused by multiple submarine cable systems last week, may continue well until the end of January, just before Tet, or Lunar New Year, holiday begins.

Problems occurring on three of Vietnam’s major submarine cable systems since last weekend have significantly hampered the connectivity of all local Internet services, especially that provided by military-run Viettel.

The first incident was discovered on January 7, with a leakage spotted along a section of the Asia- Pacific Gateway (APG) off the central city of Da Nang, reducing traffic to only about 20 percent.

A power loss was recorded along a section of the Asia America Gateway (AAG) on the following day, compromising the connection with servers in Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United States.

On January 9, the Intra Asia (IA) cable network was broken and fixed within a day, before another problem was found on the same network on Wednesday morning, which arose from a power loss in Singapore.

The problem of the AAG network is expected to be repaired by January 27, or the Lunar New Year’s Eve, according to newswire Bizlive.

In the meantime, there has yet to be any exact timeline for the recovery of the other two cable systems.

Taking toll on users

Many Internet users in Vietnam have reported the difficulties faced during their daily activities and business operations due to the slow Internet speed.

Thuy Linh, who works for the Mobiistar mobile phone brand, said her company had to cancel two online meetings with its foreign partners because of the slow connection, while distant communication has to be performed via phone calls.

Ly Na, a white-collar worker in District 2, Ho Chi Minh City and a Viettel Internet subscriber, stated she had not been able to send emails to her foreign partner on time, which compromised the signing of an important contract and could result in her being fired.

Hoang Huynh, a representative from Phuc Hai Mobile Company, stated that his firm had lost hundreds of millions of dong (VND100 million = US$4,442) to the Internet problems.     

The company was launching a special online event but no customers have been able to register so far, Huynh elaborated.

Meanwhile, the director of an enterprise in Binh Tan District, Ho Chi Minh City, confirmed that his firm has met many challenges in internal communication as well as external contacts, despite being equipped with services from both Viettel and FPT.

Many residents in Ho Chi Minh City have decide to access the Internet with 3G services from their mobile operators, but connectivity was not really much improved.

No compensation from service providers

Regarding compensation for the inconvenience, a representative of VNPT/Vinaphone, stated that the company would evaluate the impact of the cable problems and propose suitable compensation policies.

Meanwhile, other Internet service providers did not comment on this aspect.

According to Vu Quang Duc from the Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association, local operators are not obliged to make for the damages as the incident is considered a force majeure.

Even those Internet carriers are affected by the breakdown to a certain degree, Duc stated, suggesting however that the service providers show their goodwill by lowering the charges of their services during the affected period.

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