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Nov 24, 2017 / 17:09

4G and 5G are foundation for Vietnam developing digital economy

4G network has been officially launched in Vietnam, but giant tech-company Qualcomm is considering plan for 5G network. As such, this will be the foundation for Vietnam developing digital economy.

Previously, most of world’s leading telecommunication service providers are on the belief that 2020 is the right time for 5G network implementation, however, with the rapid growth of technologies, experts are convinced that right in 2019, this technology will be commercialized in some countries. 
 
4G and the upcoming 5G network are expected to be the driving force for digital economy.
4G and the upcoming 5G network are expected to be the driving force for digital economy.
“It may be too soon to talk about 5G network in Vietnam, as 4G has just been implemented in less than a year. However, it is also not too late to have ideas with regard to policies, technologies and the ecosystem for 5G network” – CEO of Qualcomm in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia Thieu Phuong Nam said. 

As such, digital economy must be based on a strong foundation of internet. At present, internet has transformed into mobile internet. Thus, 4g and 5G networks will be an important foundation for Vietnam to carry out its transformation to digital economy, or in another way of saying “the fourth industrial revolution”.

“In order to implement digital economy, there must be a thorough preparation on various issues, such as the improvement in cloud computing, new technologies such as robot, artificial intelligence and virtual reality. However, foundation for digital economy is still a solid mobile telecommunication infrastructure. At present, 4G is an important technology in connecting internet of things, and bring internet to everyone. However, we are at an important juncture: transforming to 5G” - Nam said. With this being said, the 5G network will have big impact to the world economy. It is expected that by 2035, 5G will create new driving force for economic development, which is equal to 12 trillion USD. 

However, according to Nam, in order to efficiently implement 5G, it is vital to have a solid 4G foundation with strong coverage, quality and new technologies. Only when this foundation is completed, then we can talk about 5G. 

At present, 4G is well advanced in the world, as its speed is equivalent to fiber cable. Currently there are 39 internet providers in the world, in which 3 biggest US service providers are implementing the 4G Gigabit LTE. Vietnam also need to upgrade to 4G Gigabit to transform efficiently to 5G. 

“5G has a big difference to 3G or 4G. If the previous technologies can only connect from a mobile source, now with 5G being internet of things, it will allow billions of smart devices to connect with each other. At present, IoT is an inevitable trend in the world” – Nam said. 

According to Qualcomm, in 2016, the company’s revenue in Internet of things was 2 billion USD. As such, revenue source from internet of things is expected to be large and booming in the coming time.  Representative of Qualcomm said, 5G mobile network will have a big impact to various industries, such as automobile, computer, internet of things, and network devices. However, industry to have biggest impact from the new network generation is automobile. 

Nam said, in the coming time, automobile industry will develop in equivalent with the 100-year development of this sector. “The definition of car is very different, which is car connected with internet, which can be controlled remotely, while the owner can entertain through internet. This new generation car will receive data in equivalent to 70 smartphones, which is a big financial resources for internet providers in the coming time” – Nam said. 

Meanwhile, for computer market, Nam said, it is expected to have big changes when Qualcomm and Microsoft producing new laptop model running on Windows 10 and using Snapdragon. The difference from other model with this one is the durability of battery, which can play video up to 30 hours, connecting 4G and potentially 5G as a smartphone. Currently Asus, Lenovo and HP are introducing similar products to the market.