VietNamNet Bridge - Under the plan, the entire AAE-1 undersea optical cable route will be completed and put into use by the end of 2016.

The AAE-1 lands in Vung Tau, Vietnam.

Last May, the contractor NEC successfully connected the undersea cable AAE-1 to the southern city of Vung Tau, with the support of local networks. According to the plan, the project AAE-1 undersea cable will be completed and put into use by the end of 2016.

In Vietnam, Viettel will be the only manager of the landing station of AAE-1 in Vung Tau with an investment of $50 million, including $10 million from the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT). Viettel owns a total capacity of up to 2 Tb/s on the AAE-1 submarine cable route.

Upon being put into operation, this cable will contribute significantly to Vietnam’s international connectivity infrastructure, ensuring national security information and ensuring communication with the world of Vietnamese users.

Asia-Africa-Europe 1 (AAE-1) is a 25,000km submarine cable from South East Asia to Europe across Egypt, connecting Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Oman, UAE, Qatar, Yemen, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Greece, Italy and France.

Seventeen of the world's most prominent service providers will construct a new and unique high capacity cable system, Asia Africa Europe-1 (AAE-1).

The AAE-1 submarine cable spanning approximately 25,000 km, will be one of the first unique cable systems connecting Hong Kong, Singapore, Middle East, Africa and Europe and providing an alternative low latency route between Hong Kong,Far East and Europe. Its completion will provide additional protection and diversity to the existing heavily congested cables systems.  

The project kicked off in 2014 by 17 major carriers including British Telecom, China Unicom, Chuan Wei (Cambodia) Co. Ltd, Djibouti Telecom, Etisalat, Mobily, Omantel, Oteglobe, Ooredoo, PCCW Global, PTCL, Reliance Jio Infocomm Pte Ltd, Telecom Egypt, TeleYemen, TOT, and Viettel of Vietnam.  

AAE-1 will employ 100Gbps technology with wavelength add/drop branching units along the lowest latency route with design capacity of over 40 terabits. Additionally, having two diversified Point of Presence (PoP) in Asia (Hong Kong and Singapore) and three onward connectivity options in Europe (via France, Italy and Greece) it will provide the requisite flexibility for these carriers and their customers.

Vietnam is currently engaged in operating three undersea cable routes - SMW-3 (total capacity of 320 Gb/s, connecting Vietnam with more than 30 countries, landing at Da Nang), AAG (total capacity of 29.5 Tb/s, landing in Vung Tau) and APG (design capacity of 43.8 Tb/s, landing at Da Nang).

AAG is the only cable route directly connecting from Vietnam to the United States - which hosts many servers of major services worldwide using Facebook, Gmail, and YouTube. Therefore, when the AAG cable breaks or is under maintenance, users often encounter difficulties in accessing these services.

Minh Ha