International internet traffic and speed in Vietnam have been fully restored after all errors on the Asia America Gateway (AAG) undersea cable were fixed, the network operator confirmed on March 14.

The issue was detected on the branch connecting Vietnam and Hong Kong in late October 2021, but the repair was repeatedly postponed due to various reasons, the network operator reported.

All malfunctions on the Asia America Gateway (AAG) subsea cable were fixed. Photo: the cable’s operations center

The AAG is one of the five major submarine cables which account for more than 60% of internet traffic from Vietnam to international destinations.

Laid in November 2009, the AAG cable system runs over 20,000km, connecting Southeast Asia with the US, passing through Brunei, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The other two cable systems, the Intra-Asia (IA) and Asia Pacific Gateway (APG) which were broken last year, were also fixed in late February.

The IA, with a total length of 6,800 kilometers, links Internet users in Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Japan.

The APG, which runs about 10,400 kilometers on the seabed across the Pacific Ocean, connects Vietnam with mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, and Singapore.

Vietnam, where 72% of the population is online, has six submarine cable systems, plus a 120-gigabit channel that runs overland through China. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Vietnamese people's internet usage increased. Therefore, internet service providers (ISPs) often distribute traffic on different cable routes to ensure the optimal internet speed.