Vietnam's outstanding achievements highlighted at AWG-31 conference in Hanoi

The 31st Asia Pacific Tele-community Wireless Group (AWG-31) Conference, held in Hanoi from May 22-26, highlights Vietnam's outstanding achievements and assists Vietnam and other countries in policy making.

Speaking at the event, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Pham Duc Long said, "In recent years, Vietnam has developed digital infrastructure, especially data center infrastructure and cloud computing, to serve Vietnam's digital transformation and provide digital services for the development of digital economy and society," Long said.

He added that the AWG had produced several beneficial outcomes, including proposing the use of the 700 MHz bands, suggestions for systems for enhancing public safety and disaster preparedness and converting GSM to mobile broadband.

Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Pham Duc Long speaks at the event. Photo: MIC

"We are at an important moment, with the world facing many challenging issues in the era of wireless devices. Telecommunications infrastructure is transforming into digital infrastructure supported by wireless technologies like 5G, smartphones, IoT, wireless charging, broadband satellites, and drones. These systems and technologies are in need of radio solutions and efficient use of frequency resources," Long said.

The deputy minister added that Vietnam's National Assembly had approved a draft law to amend a number of articles in the Law on Radio Frequency, which will promote the effective management and use of radio frequencies and contribute to the development of radio frequency infrastructure. Vietnam is also amending the Law on Telecommunications to cover the management of broadband satellite systems.

"However, we face many challenging issues, such as the rapid development of wireless microphones that can interfere with mobile systems in the 700 MHz bands, as well as other wireless devices and broadband satellite licensing solutions," Long said.

The official suggested the Asia-Pacific Telecommunication Community work together to help member countries solve these problems and overcome challenges. "Vietnam will continue to actively contribute to the activities of the Asia Pacific Tele-community and the international community," Deputy Minister Pham Duc Long stressed.

The conference, held in a hybrid format, attracted the participation of more than 500 delegates who are leading experts in the field of wireless in the region and the world from member countries, enterprises, domestic and international telecom companies such as Viettel, VNPT, GSMA, Ericsson, Huawei, Samsung, Qualcomm, and Apple.

An overview of the 31st conference of the Asia Pacific Tele-community Wireless Group. Photo: MIC

Among the topics discussed, Vietnam is particularly interested in implementing new technologies, frequency planning, and trends in selecting appropriate bands and technologies.

Le Van Tuan, Director of the Radio Frequency Department under the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), said that the AWC-31 conference considered 141 proposals from countries covering areas of radio communications. In particular, there are the following specific issues:

The first is to find the band for 6G technology, which is expected to be completed by 2030. It is time to study and develop technical standards, including frequency issues. The AWG is pioneering this substantive research.

The second is to increase the frequency band for Wi-Fi technology. It is necessary to take into account that one of the basic solutions to increase the speed of Wi-Fi is to add more bands to this technology.

The third is to find a solution to stop the production and circulation of wireless microphones using frequencies of 700 MHz and 600 MHz so as not to cause interference with 4G, and 5G mobile systems.

The fourth is to share solutions for detecting and combating fake base transceiver stations that spread fraudulent messages. Vietnam has found an effective solution to detect and trace dispersed objects.

The fifth is the problem of sharing the same frequency among mobile operators. In this context, carriers need to optimize the use of infrastructure to save costs, especially when deploying 5G and, later 6G. One of the solutions to increase infrastructure sharing is for network operators to share the same frequency.