Vietnamese technology giant FPT is said to be planning to build a cable to connect Vietnam with the undersea Asia Link Cable.
To meet the cost, estimated at US$87 million, the company will invest 30% of the money from its own resources and borrow the rest from banks. According to VN Express, it has said it expects to recoup the investment in just under nine years.
The 6,000-kilometre Asia Link Cable links Hong Kong, mainland China, the Philippines, Brunei and Singapore and has a capacity of 18 terabits per second (tbps). FPT subsidiary FPT Telecom says it will set up a connecting station in Da Nang City.
FPT describes itself as a pioneer in digital transformation and a leader in consulting, providing and deploying technology and telecommunications services and solutions. it helps clients in 29 countries and regions around the globe.
As regular readers will know, Vietnam’s five undersea cables regularly deal with breaks and disruptions that take a long time to fix. In fact only a few days ago local press reported that the Asia Pacific Gateway (APG) internet cable that connects Vietnam with the rest of Asia had encountered a new technical problem while old issues remained unfixed.
The news from FPT may therefore be welcome. It also won’t be the only such development in the coming months. Next year state-owned telecom firm VNPT plans to install the SJC2 cable with a capacity of 18 tbps.
Another state-owned telecom firm, Viettel, has also announced plans for an undersea cable that will cost US$290 million, run 9,800 kilometres and have a capacity of more than 140 tbps. That’s said to be almost three times the capacity of the Asia Pacific Gateway.