Internet users in Vietnam are advised to be ready to suffer nearly six days of snail-paced connection speed from Wednesday, as the submarine cable system crucial to Vietnam’s Internet connectivity enters its infamous maintenance.

The Asia America Gateway (AAG) cable system will be maintained from 11:00 pm on June 22 to June 27, tech newswire ICTNews reported on Saturday, citing a trusted source.

During the course of maintenance, users in Vietnam may experience slow or disrupted connection for websites or online services hosted outside the country, such as in Hong Kong or the U.S. Connection for locally hosted platforms will not be affected.

ICTNews said the incident will mostly affect subscribers of such Internet service providers as VNPT, FTP and Viettel, should these companies not have any alternative cable systems to ensure traffic.

The AAG is a 20,000-kilometer-long submarine communications cable system, connecting Southeast Asia with the U.S. mainland across the Pacific Ocean via Guam and Hawaii.

Vietnam is connected to four international submarine Internet cable systems, namely the AAG, SMW3 (Southeast Asia - Middle East - Western Europe 3), TVH (Thailand-Vietnam-Hong Kong), and IA (Intra Asia).

But Internet traffic in Vietnam is greatly affected whenever the AAG cable ruptures, as the system has the largest capacity out of the four.

Since operations in November 2009, the AAG has experienced repeated problems, with two ruptures in 2014 and four cable cuts in 2015. Vietnam’s Internet was slowed down between March 3 and 18 this year due to a power leakage on the system, according to ICTNews.

VNPT, Viettel, and FPT are reportedly participating in a trans-Asia Pacific cable system project that will connect Asia with the U.S. and is scheduled to go online in 2016.

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