According to the AAG submarine cable management unit, a cable repair vessel will begin fixing the broken cable of the S11 cable branch to Hong Kong on August 20 morning. The last weld will be completed at 8.30am on August 21 and the repair will finish at 11pm on August 22.

Meanwhile, the repair of the S1B cable toward Singapore will be fixed from August 17 to 20 and the repair will be completed on August 24.

Reportedly, the S11 cable accounts for 80% of transmission capacity of the Internet service providers (ISP) in Vietnam; only about 20% capacity goes through the S1B cable branch. Therefore, the speed of Internet connection in Vietnam largely depends on the S11 branch.

The AAG cable was cut at 5.39pm on August 2 at a location about 90 km off the South Lantau station of Hong Kong. The cause was due to the impact of typhoon No. 2. The next day another incident occurred at the S1B branch, at the point over 32 km from Changi station in Singapore.

Due to the incidents, Internet speed in Vietnam has been slow since then. Vietnamese users have found it difficult to connect to Facebook, email, foreign websites and other services.

The AAG is a 20,000-kilometer-long submarine communications cable system, connecting Southeast Asia with the U.S. mainland across the Pacific Ocean via Guam and Hawaii.

Vietnam is connected to four international submarine Internet cable systems, AAG, SMW3 (Southeast Asia - Middle East - Western Europe 3), TVH (Thailand-Vietnam-Hong Kong), and IA (Intra Asia).

Mai Nguyen