Damaged undersea cables causing Internet slowdown

PETALING JAYA: If you are experiencing slow Internet connection, it is because strong typhoons around Hong Kong have ravaged four main cables connecting South-East Asia to the United States.

The damaged cables – ASE (Asia Submarine-cable Express), Asia-American Gateway (AAG), TGA-Intra Asia (TGA-IA), and SEA-ME-WE3 (SMW3) – will take up to six weeks to be fixed, according to the tech site SnowTechStuff.

Submarine cables are difficult to fix because repair work is dependent on ship availability, weather conditions and permits.

ASE is a 7,200km submarine cable jointly owned by Telekom Malaysia, Singapore's Starhub, Japan's NTT and the Philippines' PLDT. Telekom Malaysia is also part of the consortium that owns AAG.

Local telcos were not available for comment due to the public holiday, but TM tweeted that it was aware of the problem and was working on it.

PLDT also tweeted that users may experience slowdown, especially during peak hours, but it had rerouted traffic to lessen the impact.

Read more at http://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2017/09/04/damaged-undersea-cables-causing-internet-slowdown/#0VluyXAV522Pt5wz.99