AAE1 undersea fiber optic cable has a problem

The AAE1 undersea fiber optic cable broke in the Thai segment, causing a loss of about 3,700 Gbps of international connection capacity and has not yet been repaired. According to the Department of Telecommunications – Ministry of Science and Technology, the incident occurred during the Lunar New Year, but did not significantly affect the quality of Internet services and communications of domestic users.

The management agency said the lost capacity accounts for nearly 10% of Vietnam’s total international Internet connection capacity, currently about 45,000 Gbps. This decrease is considered small compared to the overall level, not enough to create an imbalance in international bandwidth supply and demand.

In addition, telecommunications businesses prepare large backup capacity, exceeding actual exploitation needs. According to FPT Telecom, after the incident, the unit’s total remaining international bandwidth was 5,290 Gbps, while the highest traffic on the 3rd day of Tet reached 2,467 Gbps, equivalent to 46.6%.

Similarly, MobiFone recorded an average international channel load of 56%. When AAE1 malfunctioned, the load increased to 64.2%, still within the safe threshold. Viettel and VNPT also confirmed that international connection capacity has been upgraded and fully reserved, so the capacity lost from AAE1 is insignificant compared to the total capacity of the remaining routes.

According to the Department of Telecommunications, as soon as an incident arose, businesses activated a rescue plan, coordinating traffic to other cable routes and alternative connection directions. Coordination between domestic carriers and international partners was carried out promptly, with no local disruptions recorded.

Vietnam’s international connection infrastructure has continuously expanded in recent years. Vietnamese Internet users connect to the world mainly through three routes: undersea fiber optic cable, land cable and satellite Internet. In which, undersea fiber optic cables play a key role.

Vietnam currently has six undersea fiber optic cable lines including AAG, IA, AAE1, APG, ADC and SJC2. Two new routes ADC and SJC2 were put into operation, contributing to increasing connection capacity abroad.

From 2022 up to now, the undersea fiber optic cable system connecting Vietnam to the world has recorded nearly 40 incidents, an average of about 10 errors per year. There was a period when four out of five routes simultaneously encountered problems, causing a sharp decline in international traffic.

Route AAE1 (Asia Africa Europe 1) began operating in July 2017, helping Vietnam connect to Europe and the Middle East, while adding backup traffic towards Hong Kong and Singapore.

Share with VnExpressGeneral Director of VNPT Huynh Quang Liem said that due to depending on many objective factors, the repair of undersea cable lines often takes a long time, from several months to half a year, and in some cases it even takes up to a year.

To reduce dependence on undersea fiber optic cables, in 2025, Vietnam will for the first time own the VSTN land fiber optic cable line, with a design capacity of 4 Tbps and the ability to expand to 12 Tbps. This route allows the operator to control the whole process, contributing to reducing the risk of international Internet connection interruption.

Vietnam also agreed to pilot satellite Internet. In mid-February, after completing procedures, Starlink was officially licensed, but the implementation time and price for the domestic market have not been announced.

At the December 2025 press conference of the Ministry of Science and Technology, when asked about the level of impact of the service, the representative of the Department of Telecommunications commented that satellite Internet supports ground infrastructure, ensures communication in wave-concave areas and is especially useful in natural disaster prevention because it does not depend on ground transmission lines.