VietNamNet Bridge – The Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) said that at 11.26pm on September 15, the AAG international fiber-optic cable system from Vietnam to Hong Kong and the United States broke. The incident occurred in the waters near Hong Kong (China).

According to VNPT, the incident caused a reduction of about 40% of capacity of international Internet bandwidth from Vietnam to Hong Kong and the United States on all networks. The information was confirmed by Mr. Nguyen Van Khoa, General Director of FPT Telecom. He said that it had little effect on Internet users.

"After a similar incident in July, most networks raised their capacity to be able to respond to a similar situation,” Khoa said.

VNPT also confirmed that it would increase the capacity of the international cable on land and sea to ensure maximum service quality.

Internet networks said that they were working with AAG system administrators to repair the route. However, Mr. Khoa said the repair was facing trouble due to unfavorable weather, particularly the storm Kalmaegi.

In mid-July, an incident on the AAG cable network occurred, 18 km off the coast of Vung Tau, Vietnam. Nearly two weeks later, the repair was completed.

The AAG is a 20,000-kilometre long submarine communications cable system, connecting Southeast Asia with the US mainland, across the Pacific Ocean via Guam and Hawaii.

With a total investment of approximately $560 million, AAG has a length of nearly 20,000 km, starting from Malaysia (TM) and ending in the U.S. (AT & T telecom company).

The segment to Vietnam is 314 km long and lands at Vung Tau.  There are four participants in the system, including FPT Telecom, VNPT, Viettel and SPT.

S. Tung