Vietnam
Vietnam reaches the global submarine network through two active international cables, linking it to both Asian neighbours and transcontinental routes toward Europe and the Americas.
Connectivity at a glance
- Cable systems
- 2active
- Landing points
- 0
- Resilience score
- 18
Cable systems serving Vietnam
| Cable | Status | Ready for service | Length | Design capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asia-Africa-Europe 1 (AAE-1) | active | 23 June 2017 | — | 100 Tbit/s (20 Tbit/s per fibre pair) |
| Asia-America Gateway | active | }} | 20,000 km | — |
Landing points
Landing point records for Vietnam are being compiled.
Vietnam and the Submarine Cable Network
Vietnam sits along the eastern flank of the Indochina Peninsula, fronting the South China Sea with a coastline that stretches for several thousand kilometres. That geography positions the country naturally along some of the busiest submarine cable corridors in the Asia-Pacific, where traffic between Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, and points west and east funnels through relatively narrow maritime passages.
Two active international submarine cables serve Vietnam according to the current register. The Asia-Africa-Europe 1 (AAE-1) system, which entered service in 2017, is one of the longest cable systems in the world, connecting Southeast Asia westward through the Indian Ocean to the Middle East and onward to Europe, as well as eastward toward Hong Kong and other Asian hubs. Its reach gives Vietnamese traffic a direct path to European endpoints without relying solely on intermediate terrestrial or satellite links. The second system, the Asia-America Gateway, spans roughly 20,000 kilometres across the Pacific, providing onward connectivity toward the United States and the broader Americas. Together, these two cables represent fundamentally different traffic directions — one oriented toward Europe and the Gulf, the other toward the Pacific and North America — which provides Vietnam with a degree of geographic route diversity at the intercontinental level.
Capacity and Resilience Considerations
A two-cable portfolio, while better than dependence on a single system, leaves limited room for redundancy if either cable faces an outage. Should one system experience a fault or require maintenance, the remaining cable must absorb redirected traffic, potentially creating congestion on routes that were already carrying substantial load. The absence of additional documented cables means there is little slack in the system for demand spikes or simultaneous faults on both routes.
The South China Sea environment compounds this concern. The sea floor here is subject to seismic activity, fishing activity, and dense shipping — all recognised sources of cable damage across the region. Vietnam's reliance on two cables crossing this environment warrants attention from operators and policymakers thinking about long-term network resilience.
Landing Points
No specific landing point locations are documented in this register for Vietnam. Work to compile that data is ongoing. Landing point information, once verified, will be added to provide a complete picture of where these international systems make landfall and connect to domestic networks.