A two-day delay in the maintenance of Asia Pacific Gateway (APG), an undersea fiber-optic cable that makes up the majority of Internet connection capacity from Vietnam to the world, is attributed to complications in soliciting higher-up approval.

According to the APG’s management board, repairs to the cable line will run until February 24, or two days longer than expected due to COVID-19 complications that delayed the approval process for the fix.

At 6:45 am on January 9, the undersea cable had a problem on the S3 branch, interrupting traffic in the direction of connecting to Hong Kong and Japan.

Meanwhile, the Intra Asia route, another important cable line for Vietnam’s connection that broke down on January 1, is still under maintenance and on track to resume regular operation on February 22.

Problems on the two lines have significantly impeded Internet connection capacity to and from Vietnam in early 2021.

As the Lunar New Year holiday ramps up Internet usage in late January and early February, service providers have rolled out emergency measures to reduce latency and ensure user experience.

The APG, which runs about 10,400 kilometers underwater across the Pacific Ocean, connects Vietnam with mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, and Singapore.

The cable system was launched in 2016 with a traffic capacity of 54.8 terabits per second – the largest of any other cables in Asia – and is expected to provide more stable connection for Vietnamese Internet users.

Many popular Vietnamese telecom firms such as VNPT, Viettel, FPT Telecom, and CMC Telecom are using this cable system for their services.

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