Vietnam’s Internet to run slowly in the next 10 days

Hopefully

It's only affecting overseas services, so long as your not streaming\downloading its bearable.
As the article states 4th of nov is the expected fix date.

I have to say I'm surprised at how often this cable is "damaged".
I get official reports from FPT etc for work all saying the same thing obviously, but do wonder if other reasons lie behind the reduction in speed

So glad we have alternate gateway selection as well as satellite InterNet.

Don't forget to check your service guarantee for the minimum speed and demand a refund if they breach it.

If you have a VPN that terminates anywhere other than the Canada or USA, i.e. Europe service interference will be minimised - streaming the BBC from London no problem.

Jaitch wrote:

as well as satellite InterNet.

out of curiosity what does that cost you? And more to the point is speed consistent? Looked at it several years back for another project and it was cost prohibitive then.

The Vung Tau undersea cable has been in disrepair since late July. They simply could not find the problem, and could not give any estimates of when it would be repaired. Actually had it repaired last week, but they found another problem, so that's why we're seeing notifications now that it will be repaired again by the 4th. As Jaitch said, alternate gateway selection is the only reason we haven't seen major interruptions over the past several months. Since I'm paying through the nose for my ADSL service, my ISP considers me a VIP customer and has kept mine relatively stable during this time.

Laidbackfreak wrote:

I have to say I'm surprised at how often this cable is "damaged".

Laidback, I wonder the same as you. Being we're in Vietnam though, it's more likely the result of half-ass repairs from the previous times it had a problem, leading to further problems. Maybe this time, since it's been down so long, they finally fixed it correctly.

One last note, although the article states it will be repaired by the 4th, I was told the 8th. I hope the 4th is correct, but again, this is Vietnam...

saigonmonkey wrote:

One last note, although the article states it will be repaired by the 4th, I was told the 8th. I hope the 4th is correct, but again, this is Vietnam...

what was your alternative source? My official notification from FPT states the 4th, but as you say TIV.

saigonmonkey wrote:

As Jaitch said, alternate gateway selection is the only reason we haven't seen major interruptions over the past several months.

We choose our own gateway - BMT is physically and electrically halfway between SGN and DAD. SGN customers are stuck with whatever is offered.

saigonmonkey wrote:

more likely the result of half-ass repairs from the previous times it had a problem, leading to further problems.

The inference about VietNam and repairs is not accurate as the repairs are assigned to cable ships by the submarine cable operators - nothing to do with VietNam.

"Trawl fishing, vessel anchoring, nature disaster such as earthquake, typhoon and landslide are the main threats to the submarine networks."

"When there is a cable break on AAG submarine cable system, there are not many alternative choices for Vietnamese carriers to restore service promptly. One possible solution is to switch Internet traffic to the TGN-IA submarine cable which is located at the same Vung Tau cable landing station in Vietnam. The other alternative solution is to run the Internet traffic over terrestrial cables between Vietnam and China. There are multiple terrestrial cables between Vietnam and China, supporting 10G and 2.5G solutions, and running forward to connect Hong Kong and trans-pacific and intra-Asia submarine cables."  (Source: SC Networks)

Jaitch wrote:

We choose our own gateway - BMT is physically and electrically halfway between SGN and DAD. SGN customers are stuck with whatever is offered.

Given that my service has been somewhat better than I would expect, under the circumstances, I would think my ISP has a choice of gateways, and has switched to the next best one while the cable is under repair. I have no problem accessing sites from North America. So I'm not sure what you mean. I don't choose my own gateway - my ISP does that for me. Maybe I'm not using the term gateway properly. But I'm not an IT guy - just have enough knowledge to argue.

I'll stand by what I said regarding Vietnam and repair of the cable - to a point. OK, so Vietnam doesn't actually repair the cable. I find it very hard to believe that the other countries connected to that cable have as many interruptions as Vietnam has. It kind of goes hand-in-hand with most of the other infrastructure issues related to Vietnam. I'm no expert on the exact layout of the cable, but I would expect there is a main trunk line laid across the Pacific, with branches out to the various countries connected to it. My guess is there is a problem with Vietnam's connecting branch - otherwise all other countries downstream from the break would also be disconnected, (Malaysia and Singapore come to mind) and I find it hard to believe they would tolerate 3+ months of interrupted service from that cable. Therefore, it's probably a Vietnam-only problem.

laidbackfreak wrote:

what was your alternative source? My official notification from FPT states the 4th, but as you say TIV.

A technical manager from my ISP.

Are they still working on this? Does anybody know a good private VPN to subsribe to?

Yes they are still working on it... SaigonMonkey was right I've been told the 7th now, so expect it sometime next month.... lol

Based on the performance I'm getting both at home this morning and at my office in Bien Hoa City, it appears the cable may be repaired now, although my ISP guy told me he would call me when he knows it's done. Hasn't called yet, but looks much better to me.

Still got issues here....

Saigonmonkey,

I am in Bien Hoa also, and my speeds to the US are way down, can't stream video at all. Who is your ISP? I am using FTP.

FPT also. Been steady all morning. Streaming election coverage right now.

As I said, my guy hasn't called me yet. So they may still be tweaking the system and gradually shifting everyone back over to the AAG gateway, rather than all at once.

I'm guessing since that website stated the repairs would be complete on the 4th, and my guy told me the 8th, that he knew it may be the 8th by the time everyone is back up where they should be. So give it another day or so.

My office is within a large JSC with top-level FPT service, so that may be why mine's OK today.

Saigonmonkey, are you using a private vpn?

Parmyd wrote:

Saigonmonkey, are you using a private vpn?

No.

It appears it is now working in Bien Hoa, I just streamed an entire Netflix movie without any interuptions.

It seemed to get better for a few days. But the internet seems to have gone very slow again.