Vietnam will need at least two or three more submarine cables to ensure proper internet services for the country's development in the next five years, according to Vu The Binh, Secretary-General of the Vietnam Internet Association.

Vietnamese internet service providers have confirmed that four out of five submarine internet cables that connect the country to the world are experiencing issues, seriously affecting performance and reliability.

Three undersea fiber optic cable routes - APG, AAG and AAE-1 - connecting Vietnam to the world have continued to encounter errors. Local internet providers have come up with solutions to provide uninterrupted service.

The Asia Pacific Gateway (APG) was the latest – following Asia America Gateway (AAG) and AAE-1 (Asia-Africa-Euro 1) – to see disruptions after a problem on the S6 segment (near Hong Kong, China) was reported on Monday morning.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Khanh said Vietnam could have opened the internet sooner but it needed to prepare well in technique, human resources, policies, and more importantly, ideology.

The decision to connect to the Internet 25 years ago was a brave act, showing a long-term vision, contributing to comprehensive changes in the country, experts said at the 25th anniversary of Vietnam's Internet and Internet Day 2022 on December 7.

The fault that occurred in mid-September for the Asia Pacific Gateway (APG), which links Vietnam with Hong Kong and Japan, was repaired on November 14.

The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) seeks to popularize broadband internet access and smartphone ownership to 100 percent of the population.

The Asia Pacific Gateway (APG) undersea cable, which connects eight countries and territories in the region, is facing problems with its S1.7 section, about 910km from Southeast Asia.

Undersea fiber-optic cables in Vietnam have continuously met trouble, including the broken AAG on October 22, 2021 and the broken APG on December 5, 2021.

The problems occurring on two international submarine fiber optic cable lines APG and IA have been fixed. Currently, only the AAG cable remains interrupted.

In addition to the two international submarine cables, AAG and APG, which have had problems since last year, the Intra-Asia (IA) submarine cable broke down on February 18, slowing down Internet speed in Vietnam.

Speedtest has announced the quality of Vietnam's Internet in the fourth quarter of 2021, showing that service improved significantly compared to the previous period.

Internet infrastructure in the country is set to receive considerable investment in 2022 to meet users’ growing demand.

Vietnam needs to have solutions to strengthen the international Internet connection infrastructure on par with other countries in the region.

The Internet price is classified as one of the cheapest in the world, while the Internet speed in Vietnam is rated as good. 

The Vietnam Internet Network Information Centre (VNNIC) on December 15 announced a report on Vietnam Internet and Internet resources with the theme “Internet for all”.

Problems affecting the APG and AAE-1 submarine fiber optic cables, which have slowed Internet speed in Vietnam for months, have been fixed.

The error on the S1B branch connecting Hong Kong with Singapore of the AAG international submarine fiber optic cable has been fixed. 

Speedtest statistics showed that the download speed of mobile networks in Việt Nam reached 42.46 Mbps in July, lower than the world average of 55.07 Mbps.