This is the second time Vietnam’s internet cable has been cut this year. Affecting 93 million Vietnamese people, none more than the nation’s gamers. The issue is always one of the biggest problems for Vietnamese gamers.
This second time has frustrated millions of gamers and also affected the productivity of thousands of game companies in the country. Not just that, many internet cafes can expect some decreases in their bottom line thanks to this accident. This cable section dubbed the Asia American Gateway AAG, accommodates most international connections for Vietnamese internet providers like FPT Telecom, VNPT, and Viettel. Data transfer overseas such as web browsing, email, internet calling were all affected due to a damaged undersea cable.
Last time the cable was cut, people couldn’t even login to their Facebook account. They couldn’t even watch Youtube videos. No Youtube! Dota and Hearthstone players were particularly outspoken because there’s no way they can even access to their games. However, gamers who play online game which have servers in Vietnam didn’t have to worry much because it only affected services originating outside the country.
International internet services disruption has been an on and off issue for Vietnamese gamers, who are left to adapt by switching back and forward between Vietnamese games and foreign games while waiting for service to be fixed. Interestingly, League of Legends players, who already have the benefit of a local publisher as well as a local server, are not affected much by the issue. They often take some pleasure seeing Dota players suffer through the outages.
(See: Why Blizzard needs a publisher for Hearthstone in Vietnam)
Several cable disruptions have occurred since 2011, forcing those internet providers to invest in many other undersea cables. The whole country depends on these cables, when cut, it takes out the majority of internet traffic. FPT Telecom, an internet provider in Vietnam said that it’s hard to fix the cable immediately due to the effects of weather. Last time it took more than a week to bring internet back to its normal speed. However, the internet providers have expanded the international bandwidth of their back-up cables since the first outage so that people will not be as severely affected.
The reason that this cable is often cut is because Vietnamese internet providers have been using cheaper and lower quality lines for some time. They don’t have many alternatives. With that in mind, we can see it’s also hard on their business, because upgrading to new cables would mean raising the price of their internet service. Meanwhile, the majority of the Vietnamese population cannot afford higher internet prices at the moment. Demand doesn’t meet the supply is the main reason why they haven’t already upgraded it to a new cable. Despite the fact they have already added more bandwidth, the internet is still slow and frustrating at this time.
Read more:
Stay updated on the go with our mobile app.
Get latest insights with smoother, more personalized experience through TIA mobile app.
