Do you experiencing any browsing issues in the past few days?
Telekom Malaysia (TM) announced on 17th April that maintenance works are being carried out on the Asia-America Gateway (AAG) submarine cable system by its consortium of operators until April 21.They involve works on Segment 1i, between Vung Tau (Vietnam) to Lantau, Hong Kong connecting Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Asia Pacific, including Malaysia to Hong Kong and the United States (US).
“The affected cable provides international connectivity to many Internet-based services such as video conferencing, gaming and Virtual Private Network (VPN) hosted in Hong Kong and the US,” it said.
In the meantime, mitigation works and traffic rerouting is being done to reduce the impacted services. The Telco said it is also taking measures to optimize traffic from its networks to reduce congestion and divert traffic to alternative routes.
“TM would like to reiterate that it has a vast and diverse network connectivity worldwide that is sufficient to continuously support any sudden spike in demand for Internet bandwidth. This has enabled us to ensure the functioning of our network infrastructure, having it always-on and available to customers to ensure seamless and uninterrupted connectivity,” it said.
The telco added that existing partnerships with tech giants and social networks in localising Internet content has resulted in only 20% of its Internet traffic going truly international, mainly for streaming, online games and tele-conferencing. This means the cable fault would have minimal impact to Internet users in Malaysia, the company claimed.
“TM is also committed to ensuring its core network and fibre optic infrastructure are capable of supporting any sudden increase in bandwidth requirement for industries to ensure that their services to end users are not interrupted.”
It has also assured consumers that it has ample backhaul capacity that could be upgraded to cater for the spikes in data usage for industry and mobile users.
AAG provides international connectivity to some internet-based services such as video conferencing (like Zoom), gaming that rides on Valve (including Roblox & Blizzard), Virtual Private Network (VPN) and Instant Messaging (like Jabber and WeChat) as well as any applications hosted in Hong Kong and the US.
TM says it has Sufficient Network Connectivity Worldwide
“TM would like to reiterate that it has a vast and diverse network connectivity worldwide that is sufficient to continuously support any sudden spike in demand for internet bandwidth. This has enabled us to ensure the functioning of our network infrastructure, having it always-on and available to customers to ensure seamless and uninterrupted connectivity.” it said.
TM reported more than 30% increase in Internet usage as most people are currently confined at home due to the Movement Control Order (MCO) that has been extended to 28 April 2020. However, the increase of international link traffic is only 5% and TM claim that its network is still capable to serve popular apps or content with acceptable user experience.
Telekom Malaysia connects Malaysia to the world via more than 20 direct connectivity of its submarine cables systems – spanning over 190,000 km – to more than 60 countries. These include the following submarine cable systems:
- Asia America Gateway Cable Network (AAG)
- Sistem Kabel Rakyat 1Malaysia (SKR1M)
- Malaysia Domestic Submarine Cable System (MDSCS)
- South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe Cable System 3 (SEA-ME-WE3 – SMW3)
- South East Asia-Middle East-West Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE 4, SMW4)
- South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe Cable System 5 (SEA-ME-WE5, SMW5)
- Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 (APCN2)
- Batam-Rengit Cable System (BRIGHT)
- Batam-Dumai-Melaka Cable System (BDM)
- Cahaya Malaysia, including the new Bay of Bengal (BBG) cable system
- Malaysia-Cambodia-Thailand (MCT)
- Japan – US Cable Network (JUSCN)
- China – US Cable Network (CUSCN)
- South Atlantic 3 / Western Africa Submarine Cable / South Africa Far East (SAT-3/WASC/SAFE)
Sources:
www.thestar.com.my
www.malaysianwireless.com
