13 February 2023

The general secretary of the Vietnam Internet Association, Vu The Binh, has reportedly said that the country needs at least two to three more undersea cable routes in the next five years to meet growing demand.

The Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reports that four (out of five) undersea cable routes used by Vietnamese carriers are experiencing issues that have been seriously affecting internet connection traffic from Vietnam since late January. This is the first time so many incidents have happened at the same time.

Viettel has devised re-routing plans to regulate traffic on the remaining sea cable and land cables and buy additional emergency capacity, while the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) is also using measures to ensure international internet connections to its consumers.

The VNA says that social media platforms, financial, banking, and insurance transactions and mobile data connections are still functioning, but data-heavy activity, like online games or watching movies, will probably be affected at busy times.

Major domestic service providers are actively working with submarine cable systems and ship operators to determine the cause of the issues, the location of the incidents and repair plans. Other smaller providers are trying to push more traffic onto land cables via China and Cambodia.