All five undersea cables connecting Việt Nam with the world have been partly or wholly disrupted simultaneously. — Photo ictnews.vietnamnet.vn

HÀ NỘI — The South-East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 3 (SMW3) cable, the last fully functional undersea internet cable of Việt Nam, has encountered a problem on its S2.7 segment that connects with Singapore, Internet service providers in the country said.

This means all five undersea cables connecting Việt Nam with the world have been partly or wholly disrupted at the same time, an unprecedented development.

Earlier, Asia-America Gateway (AAG) and Asia Pacific Gateway (APG) suffered from serious failures and are now completely unable to carry the internet traffic. The Intra Asia (IA) and Asia-Africa-Europe 1 (AAE-1) also recorded breakdowns and are only partly functional.

However, Vietnamese service suppliers said the failure of the fifth cable has not greatly impacted internet speeds between the country and the world.

The SMW3 cable is outdated and is due to be decommissioned, so it is not used for fixed broadband internet services.

The providers added that the latest breakdown didn’t occur during peak times, and they immediately took measures to reduce the impact on the internet speeds.

They noted that service suppliers are implementing the best measures to ensure users’ Internet access.

After serious connection problems earlier this month, internet users in Việt Nam said the speed and reliability had been improved when accessing popular services like TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, online games, or streaming videos. — VNS