Vietnam’s high level of digital penetration has been a saving grace during the COVID-19 lockdown, enabling home-based work, e-learning, and e-Commerce to thrive.
It has been a somewhat different situation for those using international online services though, with the two main submarine cables carrying internet traffic into and out of Vietnam suffering a series of failures that are yet to be rectified.
The effect for internet users in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Lao PDR has been slower and more erratic than normal online services, with mail and messaging services, mobile apps, social media sites, and websites experiencing a range of malfunctions and connectivity issues. Reports of Gmail refusing to open, Facebook and website pages not loading, and video conference calls or videos freezing, or just not working at all, are common.
