Asia Pacific Gateway, or APG, is one of five undersea fiber optic cable routes which make up a large proportion of international connection capacity from Vietnam to the rest of the world. 

The other four include IA (Intra Asia), AAG (Asia America Gateway), AAE-1 (Asia - Africa - Euro 1) and SMW3. At present, it is the only cable route used by Vietnamese mobile network operator that still has errors.

In late December 2022 and January 2023, an accident occurred on the S6 branch connecting with Hong Kong (China) and S9 with the error location about 151 kilometers from the SEA docking station. The two accidents caused the complete loss of capacity on the route.

The incidents on S9 and S6 branches of APG were fixed in late March and mid-April, respectively. However, the capacity of the whole route has not fully recovered as a new problem was discovered on the S7 branch.

As planned, the problem on S7 was fixed in late June. But again, the cable route operator discovered a new error on S1.7 with a connection to Singapore.

With the error, since late June, the internet connection on the direction towards Hong Kong (China) and China has been operating normally, while the connection towards Singapore has been interrupted. Telecom carriers estimate that the capacity of the route has recovered by 50 percent. 

A representative of an internet service provider (ISP) in Vietnam told VietNamNet on July 20 that the schedule on fixing problems that occurred in late June on S1.7 of APG has been set. It is expected that the repair and restoration of the entire capacity will be completed by late August. By that time, all the five undersea cable routes will become operational normally.

The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) said that the digital infrastructure must be prioritized to accelerate national digital transformation. Vietnam’s digital infrastructure includes telecommunication infrastructure, data infrastructure, and technological infrastructure such as services and infrastructural digital platforms.

According to MIC, as of the end of June, the fixed broadband network access speed in Vietnam reached 93.31 Mbps, an increase of 29.98 percent over the same period in 2022, ranking 42nd in the world, higher than the world average of 79.28 Mbps. 

The mobile broadband access speed reached 47.27 Mbps, up 33.95 percent, ranking 47th and higher than the world average of 42.3 Mbps.

Under the draft National Digital Infrastructure Strategy, Vietnam will have 2-4 more international cable routes by 2025.

Van Anh