With 468 yes votes out of 472 National Assembly deputies, the National Assembly on November 24 officially approved the Law on Telecommunications (amended), which has 10 chapters and 73 articles.

According to the Authority of Telecommunications (AOT), the Law on Telecommunications has been amended based on international practice and the trends in Vietnam.

The revised law stipulates new regulations on the management over data center, cloud computing and basic telecommunications services on the internet which are in line with the development trend in the telecommunications sector and the convergence of telecommunications and IT.

According to AOT, digital technology and digital transformation have had unprecedented speed over the last 10 years, which has had an impact on telecommunications.

The traditional telecommunications infrastructure has become a new digital infrastructure for the digital economy.

Digital infrastructure includes broadband and universal telecommunication infrastructure, IoT infrastructure, data center and cloud computing infrastructure, and digital infrastructure as service and digital infrastructural platform.

Digital infrastructure plays a much more important role than communication infrastructure with broadband and ultra-broadband, ans is universal, sustainable, green, smart and safe. Developing digital infrastructure will become increasingly expensive and it should be integrated and shared with other infrastructure.

Amid the digital transformation trend, data becomes the most important resource of the digital economy and the new input factor of production. Therefore, many countries attach much importance to data center infrastructure and cloud computing and put it under management with strict regulations.

Data center and cloud computing will become the most important components of digital infrastructure, which needs policies to develop sustainably.

Mentioning the need for institutional perfection, an AOT representative said that previously, in order to provide telecommunications service, there had to be telecommunication network infrastructure, so managing network infrastructure also meant the management of telecommunications service. 

But nowadays, telecommunications services can also be provided via the internet. This has posed a question about managing telecommunications service on the internet and managing cross-border service.

According to AOS, since 2010, Vietnam has joined many next-generation free trade agreements, under which it has pledged higher commitments than the WTO (World Trade Organization) commitments.

The legal framework has changed a lot since 2010 with many laws having been enacted, amended and supplemented. Therefore, it is necessary to revise the Law on Telecommunications as well to ensure the conformity of laws and regulations.

The law will lay down an important premise for Vietnam to turn the goals on telecommunications development and improvement of Vietnam’s position in the telecommunications rankings into reality.

Van Anh