Damaged undersea cable disrupts internet service in Vietnam

a reply to: gator2001

more then likely given that its shallow with alot of vessels around.

it does happen all the time. An article i read the other day which is relevant www.itnews.com.au...

originally posted by: gator2001

originally posted by: Xcathdra
a reply to: gator2001

My opinion - it rests with China or Russia. The US has access to many bases in the region. The only 2 countries pissed about that are China and Russia.

I thought about that and you might be right. The problem I have with that is why was the cable cut off going only to Vietnam? Why not cut it further at the point where the Philippines are cut off, too?

Who is an ally of the US in Asia?

Does the Vietnamese government use the cable for vital functions? Like defense? Finance? Business?

I can see it as a shot across the bow.

originally posted by: Xcathdra

originally posted by: gator2001

originally posted by: Xcathdra
a reply to: gator2001

My opinion - it rests with China or Russia. The US has access to many bases in the region. The only 2 countries pissed about that are China and Russia.

I thought about that and you might be right. The problem I have with that is why was the cable cut off going only to Vietnam? Why not cut it further at the point where the Philippines are cut off, too?

Who is an ally of the US in Asia?

Does the Vietnamese government use the cable for vital functions? Like defense? Finance? Business?

I can see it as a shot across the bow.

That I don't know. That is a good question. I don't think this was out of the blue. Obama leaving office soon. I don't think an internet outage to a whole country is just a tanker going over it with it's blades is really plausible right now. With the actions going on here with islands, etc...I think a country did this.

a reply to: gator2001

I didnt think about Obama trying to create havoc for trump.. That is a definite possibility.

originally posted by: jappee
a reply to: gator2001

I'm jealous. I am outside of PLDT territory, as they have better service and bandwith. I am actually very lucky to have a landline at all. Most people use cell based hotspot devices, or a point to point wifi antenna on their roofs. they will attest the signal is bad.


I paid for half a kilometer of wire and poles for it...necessities.

Yeah..I used a Globe handheld for a while. I was outside the city, so my reception was poor. Also, they say unlimited for a day, but after 800, they cut you off. Yeah. I know what you are dealing with.

To get my PDLT, I had to actually pay them for the line going to my house. Ridiculous.

But, you still have internet. That is my point.

originally posted by: Xcathdra
a reply to: gator2001

I didnt think about Obama trying to create havoc for trump.. That is a definite possibility.

Yes...you are getting my point. Only now this happens. Obama going out. He stirred up Isreal. Now maybe he is trying to stir up Asia before he goes.

So, a couple things here...

1. Sub-sea/trans-sea cables get hooked and snagged by things quite frequently, particularly in lesser developed countries because the cable installations are less robust. Ships will drag anchors over them, trawlers will snag them with nets...all kinds of things happen. More than likely there is about a 97% probability that outages such as these are due to something other than sabotage.

When I lived in Malaysia the internet would go out all the time, and every single time they blamed it on the sub-sea cables. I worked in technologies there and something wasn't adding up. So we dug a little deeper....

2. If you think about it, a trans-sea cable interruption would not affect internet connectivity within the country itself, only outside. So, one should be able to connect to local/regional websites without issue (because they don't use the trans-sea cables to connect with). We found out that nine times out of ten the outage affected ALL internet, not just international connections. So it was the ISP itself which was having issues, and they were just blaming it on someone else to save face.

When we pushed the issue at corporate levels we finally got to the truth. At the time our rates were based on "up-time" availability, and they had caveats in their contracts saying they weren't responsible for outages outside their control (i.e. sub-sea cables), so that's who they'd blame it on...every single time. Of course, then they could charge the full rates despite the outages. When we proved it wasn't related to international traffic, but ALL traffic coming through the ISP, guess what? Suddenly the problems miraculously got fixed. Go figure.

So, bottom line, if your outage is a complete outage (i.e. no internet at all) then it's almost a 90% chance it's not a sub-sea cable issue, and more likely a terrestrial ISP hardware issue.

ETA...And just to add, a sub-sea cable cut is no easy fix. It's not going to be fixed in a matter of hours, or days even. It's not like you can pop a manhole cover and access the cable. It takes highly specialized ships which can grab the cable and bring it to the surface where it can be repaired. These ships aren't idly standing by for these kinds of repairs. It could take months just to get the ship scheduled, and then even more months for the ship to sail from wherever it is to where the damage is. Then, they have to find the break. Trust me, something like this is not going to be a "one or two day" outage.