Two major submarine cable systems linking Vietnam to the global network -- the Asia Pacific Gateway (APG) and the Intra Asia (IA) -- are still out of service, slowing the country's Internet connection to international destinations.

The Vietnam News Agency cited a local Internet service provider as saying on Friday that while the Asia-Africa-Europe-1 undersea cable has been fully restored, issues persist with the APG and IA cables.

The APG cable is experiencing faults on two branches -- S1.9 and S8 -- which connect Vietnam to Malaysia and Thailand, respectively.

Meanwhile, the IA cable encountered an issue on December 26 on its S1 branch between Vietnam and Singapore, cutting off connections from Vietnam to Hong Kong and Singapore.

International partners have yet to provide a timeline for resolving the issues on the IA cable to local Internet service providers.

For the APG cable, repairs to the S8 branch are expected between January 6 and 10, but no timeline is available for the S1.9 branch.

Submarine cable disruptions significantly slow Vietnam’s international Internet speed and bandwidth, causing widespread inconvenience. 

To address these challenges, the Ministry of Information and Communications included the expansion of Vietnam’s international cable infrastructure in its June 2024 strategy for international cable development.

According to this strategy, Vietnam looks to add at least 10 new undersea cables by 2030, increasing the total to 15.

Besides, as part of the national digital infrastructure strategy approved by the central government in October 2024, the country plans to launch at least two new submarine cables by 2025 and at least eight more by 2030.

These efforts aim to enhance the resilience of Vietnam’s telecommunications infrastructure, ensure uninterrupted connectivity, and expand international bandwidth.

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