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Vietnam's average broadband speed has been ranked 74 out of 189 countries and territories in a recent global broadband speed survey compiled by Cable.co.uk.

The results are based on an analysis of over 63 million broadband speed tests conducted worldwide. The data was collected across one year by M-Lab, a partnership between New America's Open Technology Institute, Google Open Source Research, Princeton University's PlanetLab and other supporting partners; the information was compiled by Cable.co.uk.

With an average download speed of 5.46 megabytes per second, Vietnam has been ranked 74 out of 189 countries and territories, surpassing China, India and other Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.

Image source: nguoiduatin.vn

Singapore topped the world with an average download speed of 55.13Mbps, followed by Sweden and Taiwan, who achieved 40.16Mbps and 34.4Mbps speeds, respectively.

This is a result that may surprise many.

In the first quarter of 2017, the average internet speed in Vietnam rose to 9.5 megabit per second (Mbps) to secure the 58th spot in the State of the Internet report by content delivery network services provider Akamai.

According to the report, the average Internet speed in Vietnam in the first quarter of 2017 rose 15 percent from the previous quarter and 89 percent from the first quarter of 2016, posting the highest yearly growth in the Asia-Pacific region.

Cable Ruptures

Vietnam is notorious for its unstable internet connection, with undersea cables requiring frequent maintenance due to ruptures.

The latest disconnect occurred on June 20 when the newly launched Asia Pacific Gateway (APG) cable broke between Hong Kong and Vietnam.

The cable became operational in late December of last year and was officially launched on January 3. Soon after the launch, a technical problem occurred that required two weeks to fix.

Image source: news.zing.vn

It wasn’t until July 6 that the APG resumed full service following the repair work.

The US$450 million APG, with a capacity of more than 54 terabit/second, was expected to double the internet speed in Vietnam and ease the country’s reliance on the notoriously problematic Asia America Gateway (AAG), which has broken or been shut down for maintenance on numerous occasions since its start in 2009.

The new APG line was built in four years, and links Japan with Hong Kong, mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

Sharks?

Currently, Vietnam has five undersea cable systems: APG, AAG, SeaMeWe-3, Tata TGN-Intra Asia and Asia Africa Europe-1.

Nearly 49 million people in Vietnam, or more than half of the country’s population, regularly use the Internet. Therefore, any internet disconnection affects millions of people and businesses.

After each of the numerous AAG cable ruptures, Vietnamese telecoms were unable to determine the culprit, which even inspired internet memes blaming the issues on "sharks".

Image source: game8.vn

In 2015, The Independent reported that sharks may be the culprit for cable ruptures in Vietnam, displaying internet videos of sharks biting fibre optic cables.

According to the paper, sharks may mistake electromagnetic waves for bioelectric fields that surround schools of fish.

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