Internet speeds suffered during the long weekend as up to four undersea cables linking Southeast Asia to the US has been damaged. However, the impact is expected to be minimal for internet users in Malaysia, according to Telekom Malaysia.
Telekom Malaysia has said that the cable damage was due to two strong typhoons that landed near Hong Kong. Four cables were affected by the adverse weather: ASE (Asia Submarine-Cable Express), TGA-Intra Asia (TGA-IA), Asia-American Gateway (AAG) and SEA-ME-WE3 (SMW3). The company expects repairs to take between four to six weeks; but also says that it expects the impact on Malaysian internet speeds to be minimal.
Hi, yup. Buat masa sekarang pihak kami sedang membuat pembaikian. Pengguna mungkin menghadapi isu slow connection semasa pembaikian tersebut
— TMConnects (@TMConnects) September 3, 2017
However, according to a Filipino source, as many as five cables have been damaged in the latest incident. This is said to have taken place on 27 August 2017; although it it seems that the full effect of the internet slowdown wasn’t felt until much later.
Curiously, internet cables linking Australia and Singapore have also reportedly been damaged. The news arrived at about the same time as the internet slowdown in Asia was being reported. This is a rather unfortunate coincidence, but it may also be due to the increasing amount of ocean traffic transiting through Southeast Asia.
For now, there’s little than anyone can do aside from wait for the cables to be fixed. Thankfully, the disruption hasn’t been too bad.
(Sources: Amanz, The Inquirer, Samui Times, The Star)
