AAG submarine cable to go back into service Oct. 3 following cable break

Vietnam's incumbent telco Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) has announced that the Asia-America Gateway (AAG) submarine cable will be back up and running on Oct. 3 following a cable cut that occurred earlier this month.

The severed cable reduced service provider Internet connectivity between Vietnam, Hong Kong and the U.S. by about 40 percent.

This is the third time that the 20,000-kilometer long submarine communications cable system, which connects Southeast Asia with the mainland of the United States through Guam and Hawaii across the Pacific Ocean, had been damaged. A similar break took place on July 16.

Nguyen Van Khoa, general director of FPT Telecom, a large Vietnam-based Internet service provider, said the cable breaks are due to what he says are below-standard technical design of the cable system, reports Vietnam Breaking news citing a story in the Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

"Two years ago, part of the AAG that connects bordering areas between Malaysia and Singapore repeatedly broke, since it goes through overlapping maritime areas between the two countries," Khoa told Tuoi Tre in an interview.

For more:
- Vietnam Breaking news has this article

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