We were first made aware of the AAG faults through an announcement by Smart Communications, a telco in the Philippines. In its announcement, the operator stated that AAG consortium will be conducting emergency maintenance activities in Hong Kong from 26 to 30 September 2020. However, the statement that TM sent to us provided a slightly different picture for Malaysian users. The country’s largest telco said that AAG consortium has detected the faults within the link that connects Mersing and Lantau since 30 August 2020.
TM also further added that repair works were already in progress and are expected to be completed on 5 October 2020. As for the impact of the faults on Malaysian users, there will be minimal degradation for TM customers, according to the company. TM clarified further by saying that it has not seen any significant impact on its network capacity to the US and North Asia as the company had already optimised and rerouted its traffic through alternative routes such as Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 and Asia Submarine Cable Express/Cahaya Malaysia. This was being done to help reduce the impact of AAG’s repair works on Malaysia. The company is also looking into customer feedback as an additional way to monitor the impact of AAG faults on local users. This is not the first time that faults have appeared on the AAG though, since a similar incident had taken place just a few months ago. Nevertheless, do share your feedback in our comments section as well as our Facebook or Twitter if you think that the AAG faults have resulted in a degradation of your Internet experience.