Vietnam welcomes 5G in mid-2021, many benefits ahead
While many countries have postponed their respective 5G rollout efforts due to the global COVID-19 pandemic or its affects on the global economy, Vietnam-based telecoms Viettal has already ran its first successful 5G connection back in May 2019, after receiving its trial license in January last year.
Telecom providers VNPT and Viettel enrolled 5G to test the service in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang this year, Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Information and Communications Nguyen Thanh Hai said.
The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) received many recommendations from provinces to allow carriers to deploy the network in their urban areas, industrial zones, and key areas, especially after telecoms providers conducted commercial 5G trials in cities such as Hanoi and HCM City.
As such and based on the testing results, the Vietnam Telecommunications Authority said it would respond to the recommendations by studying and licensing mobile businesses to deploy 5G, prioritizing industrial parks, high-tech parks, and IT to focus on implementing innovative digital technologies.
Market demand
Director of the provincial Department of Information and Communications noted that “all localities in An Giang are covered by 3G, 4G mobile broadband, and internet subscribers account for 65 percent of the population.”
MIC has ranked the province seventh out of 63 cities and provinces last year in information technology (IT) application and third regarding administration modernization in the Public Administrative Reform Index.
Nonetheless, Vietnam plans to provide 5G coverage nationwide by 2030, offering all citizens broadband Internet connection at low cost, according to the Vietnam authority of communication.
This step could not start immediately and will be dependent on market demand amongst other factors. An example of this is prioritizing major cities like Hanoi, HCMC or Da Nang to deploy 5G due to their need for high-speed services and their denser populations.
The same goes for industrial areas with foreign investments, where smart factories are a necessity.
Digital transformation and e-commerce
In parallel, An Giang will reinforce the application of tourism management and promotions, digital transformation program and infrastructure investment in the postal sector and logistics at large, and e-commerce. It will also strive to set up a concentrated IT zone.
VNPT, MobiFone, and Viettel have been commercially trialing 5G services with their users gaining the possibility to try 5G connections in trialed areas and with 5G-supported smartphones since November 2020.
VNPT and Viettel’s network service trials displayed a speed of up to 1 Gbps, 10 times greater than that of 4G.
Telecom operators are expecting to price 5G services at the same rate as their 4G counterparts and would not require users to change their SIM cards.