MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – Southeast Asian Internet users may have to contend with a less consistent Internet connection till October 6 as a result of the September 15 break in the Asia-America Gateway (AAG) undersea Internet cable.

According to a report on Talk Vietnam, bad weather may hamper efforts to repair the AAG faster, leading to an October 6 estimate for repairs to be completed.

Tuoitrenews.vn quoted Nguyen Van Khoa, general director of Internet Service Provider (ISP) FPT Telecom in Vietnam, as saying that part of the reason for the break was the way AAG was built.

“I must say that the AAG cable system was built to a below-standard technical design, which is the major reason behind its frequent fractures,” he added.

Van Khoa also noted that an anchor being raised or dragged by a ship may have caused the cable break.

The degradation of service for various countries is also connected to the number of cables connected to a given country, with fewer cables presenting less alternate routes for Internet traffic to pass through via rerouting.

According to the Telegeography Submarine Cable Map, the Philippines currently has 8 international connections, while Vietnam has only 5.

In a statement, PLDT spokesman Ramon Isberto said PLDT users should not be affected by the cable break. “There is indeed a cable break in AAG (near HK) but we (PLDT) are not affected since we have no live traffic traversing this path (whether internet, voice or data traffic),” he noted. – Rappler.com