AAG again was disrupted on August 16 which affected the international connection between Vietnam and the rest of the world. Work to fix the problem was scheduled to begin on August 29 and finish on September 3, 2019.

Speaking about the effects of the breakdown to ISP and internet users, Vu The Binh, secretary general of the Vietnam Internet Association (VIA), said when the cable breaks down, the quality of internet service is affected until ISP carries out rescue campaigns and upgrades the quality.

He said that Viettel, CMC Telecom and NetNam in the last three years have been trying to reduce the international connection capacity via the cable because so many incidents have occurred.

AAG again was disrupted on August 16 which affected the international connection between Vietnam and the rest of the world. Work to fix the problem was scheduled to begin on August 29 and finish on September 3, 2019.

Binh earlier this year told the local press that Vietnam’s internet capacity included new cable systems, including APG (early 2017) and AAE-1 (early 2018).

So, in theory, the proportion of internet capacity through TGN-IA and AAG has decreased, which means that internet service quality will be less affected in case one of the cable networks has problems.

However, internet users complain about the quality of internet services, especially international connections.

Asked if there are other reasons behind the users’ complaints, Binh said the demand might have increased after internet service providers doubled the bandwidth and keot the fees unchanged for FTTx (fiber to the x) services.

“This puts pressure on firms to expand capacity, while it increases users’ expectations. Once the expectations increase, users tend to be more ‘sensitive’ to the quality of service,” he explained.

According to the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC), the total internet connection capacity, both domestic and international, has increased steadily over the last five years. Of this, internet domestic connection capacity has increased from 750,000 Mbps in 2013-2014 to 1.7 million Mbps in 2016 and 2.7 million Mbps in 2018.

As for international connection, the figure was 926,687 Mbps in 2014, but it rose to 3.8 million Mbps in 2016, to 5.6 million Mbps in 2017 and hit 7.8 million Mbps in late 2018.

AAG is an international undersea fiber optic cable system with a total length of 20,191 kilometers with the initial designed capacity of 2 Tb per second. It has been upgraded over time, directly connecting Southeast Asia with America. 

Yen Ha

VN mobile network operators jump into fintech playing field

With a huge numbers of users, mobile network operators are tapping the financial service market, the major field of fintechs.

More mobile networks join Vietnam's telecom market

The telecom network is expecting to receive more mobile network operators, but analysts say the existing networks are ‘more than enough’ for Vietnam.