Vietnamese telco Viettel has partnered with Singtel to develop a submarine cable connecting Vietnam and Singapore.
Military-run Viettel has signed a deal with Singaporean telco Singtel to develop the Vietnam-Singapore cable system (VTS). The cable is planned to have a configuration of 8 fiber pairs, landing in Vietnam, Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand, and Malaysia.
The VTS cable is scheduled to be operational by Q2 in 2027 and will be the shortest cable to connect the two nations.
Viettel and Singtel will land and manage the cables in Vietnam and Singapore respectively.
“Through investing in the VTS submarine cable project, Viettel affirms its pioneering role in accompanying the government in building and developing infrastructure in Vietnam,” said Nguyen Manh Ho, general director of Viettel Solutions.
Ooi Seng Keat, VP of digital infrastructure and services at Singtel, added that the deployment of the VTS cable will support Vietnam in navigating the fast-growing digital economy, increased demand for lower-latency connectivity, and bandwidth requirements, especially in the face of growing AI demands.
Viettel said the deployment of this cable is in line with Vietnam’s 2030 strategy to increase the country’s total number of submarine cables to a minimum of 15 systems with a total capacity of 334Tbps.
As part of this strategy, the company intends to have at least two Vietnamese-owned cables operational by 2030, prioritizing the development of shorter routes to Asian digital hubs.
Viettel has also invested in five other cables that land in Vietnam; AAE-1, TGN-IA, and AAG (all with landing stations in Vung Tau), APG (landing station in Da Nang), and ADC (landing in Quoy Nhon). The company also operates five data centers across Hanoi, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City, and announced the powering up of its Hanoi data center earlier this week.
The SeaMeWe3 cable, one of 26 cables hosted in Singapore, is operated by Singtel. The telco says it operates more than 60 landing points globally and is working to install the ADC, SJ2, and SeaMeWe-6 cables, all expected to be complete by 2025.
Earlier this year, Singtel said it planned to partner with Nvidia to bring AI capabilities to Southeast Asia, as part of its commitment to national strategy.
