Vietnam has launched its largest-capacity submarine cable, the Asia Direct Cable (ADC), significantly boosting the country's international connectivity and digital infrastructure.
Key Highlights of ADC
Capacity: The ADC cable has a maximum capacity of 50 Tbps, making it Vietnam's largest submarine cable. This capacity is equivalent to 125% of Vietnam's total international connection capacity before its launch.
Route: The ADC cable is approximately 9,800 kilometers long and connects seven countries and regions, including Vietnam, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, and Japan. It directly links three major Asian internet hubs: Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan.
Investment: The total investment for the ADC project is $290 million. It is a joint project by nine leading telecom companies: Viettel (Vietnam), Softbank (Japan), Tata (India), Singtel (Singapore), China Telecom, China Telecom International, China Unicom (China), National Telecom (Thailand), and PLDT (Philippines). Viettel is the sole Vietnamese investor and owns the entire cable branch connecting Vietnam to the Quy Nhon landing station.
Impact on Vietnam's Digital Infrastructure
Enhanced Connectivity: The ADC cable will significantly improve Vietnam's international connection capabilities, meeting growing data demands and enhancing the user experience of internet services.
Backup Capacity: The cable increases Vietnam's international connection reserves and the number of fiber optic routes, ensuring connectivity even in the event of a submarine cable disruption.
Support for Advanced Services: The ADC cable will support high-speed and high-bandwidth services such as artificial intelligence, 5G, big data, AR/VR, consolidating Vietnam's digital infrastructure.
Future Development of Vietnam's Digital Infrastructure
In June 2024, three submarine cables in Vietnam partially or fully failed, causing internet slowdowns and service disruptions. In response, the Vietnamese government launched an aggressive plan to strengthen the country's digital infrastructure. The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) approved a strategy to build at least 10 new submarine cables by 2030, bringing the total number of submarine cables to 15.
According to a report by Vietnam News Agency at the time, four new submarine cables are expected to be operational by 2027, bringing the total capacity to at least 134 Tbps. Another six cable systems are expected to be operational between 2028 and 2030, bringing the total planned capacity of Vietnam's submarine cables to at least 350 Tbps. In both cases, at least one cable will be owned by Vietnam.
Vietnam's bandwidth capacity is expected to increase again in the coming months. The 10,500-kilometer Southeast Asia-Japan 2 (SJC2) submarine cable system, with an initial design capacity of 144 Tbps, is expected to go live in the second quarter of 2025.
