Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnam needs at least two tothree more undersea cable routes in the next five years to meetgrowing demand, said General Secretary of the Vietnam Internet Association(VIA) Vu The Binh.

Currently, four undersea cable routes that Vietnamese carriersexploit, including AAG, APG, AAE-1, and IA are experiencing issues, seriouslyaffecting internet connection traffic from Vietnam.

This is the first time such incidents have happened at the sametime, and even more unfortunately, during the Lunar New Year holidays.

The military-run provider Viettel has devised re-routing plans toregulate traffic on the remaining sea cable and land cables, and buy additionalemergency capacity to ensure the best service quality for customers.

Stressing that this was an unfortunate ‘force majeure’, arepresentative from Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) said theprovider was actively deploying measures to ensure international internetconnections to its consumers, including sharing data loads between stillavailable international lines, working with Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube, aswell as optimising traffic on different cables.

Thanks to these efforts, platforms like Facebook, TikTok, andYouTube can still be accessed normally, while financial, banking, and insurancetransactions can still be conducted.

Mobile data connections are also ensured, according to the VNPTrepresentative.

However, it stressed that with breakages occurring on four out offive undersea cables, internet access would suffer, especially in ‘peak hours’with activities that demand large data like online games or watching movies,etc.

Major domestic service providers are actively working withsubmarine cable systems and ship operators to determine the cause of theissues, the location of the incident and the repair plan, in the shortesttime possible.

Other smaller providers like CMC and NetNam are also making movesto mitigate the incident’s consequences like pushing more traffic onto landcables via China and Cambodia.

Binh told VietNamNet online newspaper that with this situation,the network operators only had the option to compensate through land channels.

However, this plan could be delayed as China was alsocelebrating the Lunar New Year holiday, he noted. Most networkswere frozen during the Tet holiday, therefore, it also affected the responseprogress of Vietnamese carriers.

In addition, the scenario that almost all undersea cable channelshave problems was a very rare thing, Binh said, adding the carriers couldhave also taken it into account but were less prepared for this situation.

Landline cables were most likely not able to be upgraded quicklydue to equipment limitations, he added.

"We believe that the intermittent situation and reducedquality of local international internet access would persist for the next fewweeks," he said.

With the breakdown of undersea cables becoming more and morecommon, the need to add new cables was urgent, noted Binh.

Viettel and VNPT had announced their plans that they would exploitmore cable routes to Quy Nhon this year.

In addition, in terms of Vietnam's internet in general, besidesthe need for more sea cables, it was also necessary to diversify land cablechannels, especially through the West and Southwest, he said.

This was not only to meet the needs of internet users, but also tomeet the safety level of Vietnam's communication with the world, said the VIAgeneral secretary./.