HCMC – Two new undersea internet cables, invested by Vietnamese telecom giants VNPT and Viettel, will be put into operation by the end of this year or in early 2024.

A representative of Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) said that the Southeast Asia-Japan 2 Cable System (SJC2), which connects Vietnam with five countries, is around 60% complete.

This 10,500-km cable network will have 10 landing points, including one in the coastal city of Quy Nhon, Binh Dinh Province. Its internet capacity is 126 TBps, of which some nine TBps is from VNPT.

The SJC2 undersea cable requires an initial investment of US$439 million, funded by VNPT in Vietnam, CHT, CMI, DHT, Meta (Facebook), KDDI, Singtel, SKB, Telin and TICC.

Meanwhile, Viettel Group is involved in the Asia Direct Cable (ADC) cable network, the first such undersea system in Vietnam. This is a joint effort with other international internet service providers such as Singtel, China Telecom, SoftBank, China Unicom, NT, PLDT and TATA Communications.

This cable has a total length of 9,800 kilometers and a total capacity of 140 TBps, of which Viettel Group has 18 TBps. It requires an investment of US$290 million.

Vietnam is currently connected with five international undersea cable systems — SMW-3, AAG, IA, APG, and AAE-1. However, four of them have broken down, leading to a 75% loss of internet connection capacity across the country.