Internet speeds across Southeast Asia crash as yet another undersea cable breaks

There’s bad news if you’re in Southeast Asia today after a key cable responsible for providing internet to the region broke, sending browsing speeds plummeting to a snail’s pace.

The news at least explains why the internet has been so lousy for many people today, including this author — so we can put those conspiracy theories on hold for another day.

Saigoneer.com cites Vietnamese reports that claim an Asia-America Gateway (AAG) cable has been breached somewhere between Hong Kong and Vietnam. An executive from FPT Telecom confirmed the incident to local media, although it isn’t clear how this happened.

Yes, irony of ironies, the Saigoneer post itself is loading intermittently for me such is the disruption caused with ISPs here in Bangkok, Thailand. (Even my VPN is having issues loading on this spotty connection.)

The last cable break — which occurred just two months ago — took two weeks to be repaired. There’s no timeframe for fixing the latest issue, but those of us affected are obviously hoping (/praying) that things will return to normal sooner rather than later.

The only way is up — though perhaps Vietnam can reflect on the need for more undersea cables to prevent more disruption the future?

Headline image via alphaspirit / Shutterstock