Vietnam’s military-run telecom group Viettel planned to pilot the fifth-generation (5G) technology, the next-generation of mobile network, and put into commercial use by 2021, according to Tao Duc Thang, deputy CEO of Viettel.
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According to Thang, Viettel has established an R&D department specialized on 5G since 2015, for which the Vietnamese telco has now been able to proceed with the 5G pilot plan in 2019.
Some countries such as Japan, South Korea and China are scheduled to launch the 5G network in 2019 or 2020. By piloting the network in 2019, Vietnam would be among first countries to deploy 5G, Thang added.
Nguyen Manh Hung, minister of Information and Communications (MIC), said the deployment of 5G network is an opportunity for Vietnam to leapfrog to become one of the world’s leading information and communication (ICT) countries.
Hung also stressed that Vietnam will be able to produce network devices by 2020. Currently, all 2G and 3G network devices are imported. The MIC would encourage Vietnamese IT companies to develop telecommunication devices, so that the country’s mobile network would be operated based on Vietnamese devices and systems.
Vietnam’s telecommunication market is in need of new growth engine for further development, for which the 5G network, along with other 4.0 technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT) would transform the sector, Hung stressed.
With around 100 million subscribers globally, Viettel is one of the world’s top 15 largest telecommunications companies.
Viettel currently is the only Vietnamese companies having revenue of over US$1 billion from investments abroad. Total number of customers using Viettel's services in foreign markets is estimated at 43 million by the end of 2017, up 15% year-on-year.
