Hanoi (VNA) – The Asia-Pacific Gateway (APG)international undersea cable broke down at a location about 125 km away fromHong Kong at 6:30 am on February 27, disrupting Internet connections fromVietnam to other countries.
The State-run Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications (VNPT),one of the country’s largest Internet service providers, confirmed the incidenton February 28.
VNPT said in response to the situation, it has re-directed the Internet traffic to other cable systems andbeen working with foreign partners to ensure the quality of Internet servicesso customers would not be severely affected due to the problem.
In 2017, the APG experienced two ruptures on June 20 andDecember 23. It was the second time this year the cable system has beeninterrupted with the first caused by the expansion of Changi Airport inSingapore.
Initiated in 2009, the APG is apartnership between Chunghwa Telecom (Taiwan), China Telecom (China), ChinaUnicom (China), KT Corporation (RoK), NTT Communications (Japan), PLDT (thePhilippines), Telekom Malaysia (Malaysia) and VNPT (Vietnam).
The 10,400 km-long APG boasts a capacity of 54Tbps, thehighest of any network in Asia, connecting eight countries and territories inthe Asia-Pacific region – China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan,the Republic of Korea, and Vietnam. It was funded by VNPT, Viettel, FPT and CMCTelecom.
The cable system was put into operation at the end of2016, aiming to reduce Vietnam’s dependence on the Asia-America Gateway (AAG),which broke down several times last year.-VNA
VNA