The new Asia Direct Cable (ADC) submarine cable officially commenced operations on December 19, making it the highest-capacity submarine cable in Vietnam, doubling the capacity of the previous highest-capacity cable, AAE-1.

ADC, the newest intra-Asian cable system, spans nearly 10,000 km of fiber optic cable with an initial total capacity exceeding 160Tbps.

The launching marks the deployment of the largest and most advanced high-capacity submarine cable system in the last eight years, connecting East Asia and Southeast Asia.

The ADC cable links seven landing stations along its route: Japan, Hong Kong SAR, mainland China, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, and Vietnam (Quy Nhon city in south-central Binh Dinh province).

Nine investors collaboratively built and implemented the ADC system, including Softbank (Japan), three Chinese carriers (China Telecom Global, China Telecom Corporation, and China Unicom), Singtel (Singapore), TATA Communications (India), National Telecom (Thailand), PLDT (Philippines), and Viettel (Vietnam), with Japan's NEC as the contractor.

After six years of development, overcoming numerous challenges such as the Covid-19 pandemic, global supply chain disruptions, and geopolitical tensions, the ADC system was successfully deployed; and project acceptance was signed on November 8.

On December 18, Viettel Solutions, a member of the Viettel Group, along with its partner carriers, held the inauguration ceremony of the ADC subsea cable in Hanoi.