APG and IA are two of five undersea cable routes that account for most of the Internet connection capacity from Vietnam to the world, along with three others, namely Asia America Gateway (AAG), Asia - Africa - Euro 1 (AAE-1) and SMW3.

The APG was put into operation in mid-December 2016. With a length of about 10,400 km, the system is located under the Pacific Ocean, with connection points in China, Hong Kong (China), Taiwan (China), Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The APG was invested in by VNPT, Viettel, FPT Telecom and CMC Telecom, and is a cable route that contributes to a stable transmission with a larger capacity to users in Vietnam.

In late December 2022 and January 2023, the APG route had problems on branches S6 to Hong Kong (China) and S9 with a faulty cable location about 151 km from the SEA docking station. 

According to a plan announced to internet service providers in Vietnam, the problem on the S6 branch of the APG route will be fixed on March 23-27 and the error on the S9 branch will be repaired in April 2023.

The IA system had a problem for the first time this year on the S1 branch to Singapore on January 28, with the broken cable located about 130 km from the Singapore landing station. 

An ISP said the IA cable will be fixed in mid-March 2023. With a total length of 6,800 km, the IA cable connects Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Japan. 

Besides the APG and IA, two other undersea cable routes, AAG and AAE-1, also have had problems. Vietnamese ISPs have not received notice of the repair of those systems.

According to experts, depending on the type of fault and location, the repairs will last from a few weeks to a few months. 

Van Anh