How much capacity does VN use via fiber optic cable?

Fiber optic cable system is considered the main artery in the telecommunications industry due to the function of signal transmission (voice, television, Internet .).

Therefore, the recent breakdown of marine optical cable in Taiwan has made Vietnam's Internet network in particular and Asia in general nearly paralyzed.

Many but still lacking

In Vietnam, there are currently three enterprises providing international fiber optic lines: International Telecommunication Company (VTI), Military Telecom Corporation (Viettel) and EVN Telecom (EVN Telecom). .

Of these, VTI is 'the big brother' not only for providing the oldest international telecommunication service, but also the business that owns the most international fiber optic lines. VTI is now connected to two submarine cable lines including SMW-3 and TVH. The SMW-3 with capacity of 80Gb / s was put into operation from September 1999 connecting Vietnam with nearly 40 Asian - European countries and having land access system at Da Nang International Optical Cable Station.

Fiber optic cable system SMW-3, one of the major optical cable systems of the world that Vietnam joined to connect

The TVH route connects Vietnam with Thailand, Hong Kong, with a capacity of 560Mb / s each, which was put into operation in November 1995 and has a system of shore access at Vung Tau International Marine Optical Cable Station. These two systems are the main artery connecting Vietnam's telecommunication network to the world, transmitting voice, fax, data transmission and most of the Internet capacity of Vietnam.

In addition to sea and land optical cable, VTI is also buying capacity of about 15 other international optical fiber systems such as APC, APCN, China-US, MT, PRW, RJK, SMW-2, TPC-5, TAT-12, TAT-13 . bridging the Vietnamese telecommunications network to the world.

Born later but with strong potential, Viettel also built for itself an international optical cable system including Vietnam - Hong Kong, Vietnam - China, Vietnam - Laos, Vietnam - Cambodia with a total capacity of about 15Gb / s. . The most humble is EVN Telecom with only one mainland optical cable connecting from Vietnam to Hong Kong.

According to Mr. Lam Quoc Cuong, deputy director of VTI, in addition to optical cable, there is a satellite communication system, but because this mode of transmission is much more expensive than fiber optic cable and because of low satellite transmission capacity, satellite must be the preferred form that is often used only to transmit information to remote areas and in the event of an incident. According to estimates, there are currently only about 10% of international phone calls and Internet access running on satellite systems.

Opportunity for Vietnam?

For a long time, thanks to its geographic location and economic advantages, Hong Kong has been pulled by many countries and intangible fiber optic cables to become the world's center of bandwidth transfer. Therefore, the cable breakdown in Taiwan caused all fiber optic cables to run through Hong Kong to the US, Japan, and Taiwan via paralyzed Taiwan waters.

Judging from this incident, Mr. Nguyen Manh Hung, Viettel's deputy general director, said: ' Fiber optic breakdown in Taiwan is a warning to the world that our society is based on some network infrastructure. and most of the world 's activities must be based on it, so there will inevitably be risks. Because of anticipating that risk, we have built many different fiber optic lines, but that is not enough and this is evidenced by fiber optic breakdown in Taiwan . '

According to Mr. Hung, fiber-optic breakdowns partly cause damage to Vietnamese businesses and consumers, but partly as an opportunity for Vietnam to become the world's hub for bandwidth transfer if it knows how to take advantage. Currently, Vietnamese enterprises have been building fiber optic infrastructure from Vietnam to Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar and Bangladesh. Thus, instead of connecting directly with these countries, other countries just need to connect to the fiber optic network of Vietnam. Mr. Hung affirmed: ' When becoming a hub for bandwidth transfer, Vietnam will enjoy many benefits from buying and selling bandwidth. Of course, a country that wants to be a hub for bandwidth must be a major economic center, but it may just be derived from having good investment incentives . '

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