MobiFone's staff install equipment preparing for the launch of the 5G commercial pilot in HCM City next month. (Photo courtesy of MobiFone)

The Ministry of Information Technology and Communications allowed the carrier to launch the 5G commercial pilot in the southern largest economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City.

MobiFone has been rushing to install equipment and preparing technical, human resources and locations for the launch of 5G on the broadband of 2,600MHz with a scale of 50 sites in HCM City.

It negotiated and coordinated with leading 5G network terminal equipment providers to prepare the best conditions for customer experience.

MobiFone’s subscribers would join in the launch at central areas with a high number of visitors. It is expected that MobiFone would provide high speed internet services such as video in 4K, 8K, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) games, artificial intelligence (AI) learning and Internet of Things (IoT) service.

The 5G commercial pilot aimed to evaluate the ability of MobiFone’s network before the official launch nationwide.

MobiFone said they had been focusing on the 5G launch but also ensure quality of their 2G/3G/4G services.

The number of 5G subscriptions could hit 6.3 million or 6 percent of total mobile subscriptions by 2025, according to a forecast from technology conglomerate Cisco.

5G is said to offer speeds 100 times faster than 4G and support new applications like remote medical procedures and autonomous driving.

Earlier, Minister of Information and Communication Nguyen Manh Hung said Vietnam aimed to roll out the 5G network more widely in 2021 through producing 5G devices with good quality and reasonable prices. Developing a 5G network would be one of the key directions on improving the capacity of digital infrastructure for national digital transformation./.VNA

VNPT, MobiFone to launch 5G commercial pilot next month

Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) and MobiFone are making final preparations for the launch of the commercial pilot of the fifth-generation (5G) network next month,