Repairs to the damaged undersea fiber optic lines have not begun yet but the costs will be enormous. If the math is right, to repair 11 km of on of one undersea cables that cost US$143,000 to lay back in 1994 will cost about US$2.6 million. Hopefully there will be some type of safeguards to avoid this kind of theft in the future.
On a positive note, Vietnam will participate with 10 countries to lay a 20,000 km line that will connect Asia with the US. The project is expected to be completed by October, 2008. Once this happens, maybe we all will get our bandwidth back. Just 16 months to wait 🙂
(Source: Thanh Nien News)
See article here -> Vietnam’s fiber-optic cable loss globally unprecedented: official
Speaking of Bandwidth, would you happen to know what cafe’s have the fastest wifi connections? Personally, I think the Diner at the Manor has the fastest connection in Saigon. Also I have a friend that lives in the Manor, and the FTP downloads are at about 220 Kb.
Here are the other places I’ve tried:
1. Napoli Cafe Pham Ngoc Thach Dist. 1 – Decent broadband speed
2. Lotteria’s with wifi all around the city – They use FPT, average to slow speed and you have to keep relogging in.
3. Highlands Cafe all around the city – You have to sign up and login to their service, they also make you relogin after a while too. Sometimes they block ftp ports.
4. Rosy cafe on Ly Tu Trong – Slow as hell
5. Ciao Cafe on 79 Nguyen Hue – Average speed
Please let me know, where you have found the fastest broadband cafes in and around Saigon.
Thanks,
Yon