Asia-Pacific Gateway (APG) International’s undersea cable problem, which occurred at 11.50pm on Monday, was completely fixed on Wednesday at 5.10pm.

A submarine cable.— Illustrative photo

The technical problem, which disrupted internet feed from Vietnam to other countries, was fixed two weeks earlier than expected, the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications (VNPT) Group said.

The cause has been identified as resetting of configuration on the cable by APG’s manager. The quality of connection on the cable has stabilised.

The breakdown was earlier attributed to problems in the cable’s branch at the Chongming/APG/China landing station near China, and the repair was expected to take two or three weeks. 

This is the third time the problem has occurred with APG this year. The APG cable experienced the first rupture on January 6, caused by the expansion of Changi Airport in Singapore. The second was on February 27, at a location some 125km away from Hong Kong.

Initiated in 2009, APG International is a partnership between Chunghwa Telecom (Taiwan), China Telecom (China), China Unicom (China), KT Corporation (South Korea), NTT Communications (Japan), PLDT (the Philippines), Telekom Malaysia (Malaysia) and VNPT (Vietnam).

The 10,400 km-long APG cable boasts a capacity of 54Tbps, the highest in any network in Asia, connecting eight countries and territories in the Asia-Pacific region---China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam. It was funded by VNPT, Viettel, FPT and CMC Telecom.

The cable system became operational at the end of 2016, aiming to reduce Vietnam’s dependence on the Asia-America Gateway, which broke down several times last year. — VNS