Has the snail paced internet been getting on your nerves?
Damage to submarine cables is causing reduced Internet speeds, especially for certain sites based out of the United States and Hong Kong, says Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM).
The telco said the consortium of operators which maintains the Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 (APCN2) has detected some faults in the submarine cables at Segment Three, between Chongming to Lantau connecting Malaysia to Singapore, Hong Kong and San Jose, in the 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 to The Star Online.
TM added that the cable fault may cause a degree of service degradation for Internet users of these services in Malaysia and in the region, while other users and services should be largely unaffected. Efforts on rectifying the faults detected have begun, the company said.
In the meantime, mitigation works and traffic rerouting is being done to reduce the impacted services.
TM said it is also taking measures to optimise traffic from its networks to reduce congestion and divert traffic to alternative routes.
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.
It also assures that its core network and fibre optic infrastructure are capable of supporting any sudden increase in bandwidth requirement for the industry to ensure that their services to end users are not interrupted.
Asked about the timeline for repairs, TM said the cause of the cable fault was still under investigation by the consortium and can only be ascertained after cable ships arrive for repair work.
“The expected date of full cable restoration has not been determined yet by the consortium. However, on TM’s part, we are targeting to have additional capacity ready by April 20, ” it said.
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