The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) reported that on May 15, 25 and June 2, 2023, the ministry held auctions for 2300MHz waveband, including the three blocks of A1(2300-2330 MHz), A2 (2330-2360 MHz) and A3 (2360-2390 MHz). 

However, no company submitted documents to register to attend the auctions or paid a deposit. Thus, the auctions for the rights to use the frequency band blocks of A1, A2 and A3 were unsuccessful.

On February 24, 2023, MIC issued a notice and publicly announced a plan to organize auctions for the rights to use frequency for the 2300MHz waveband.

Four telecom carriers had submitted dossiers, including VNPT, Viettel, MobiFone and Vietnamobile, and given certificates by MIC on meeting the requirements to attend the auctions.

Under Decree 88/2021, only businesses certified by MIC as meeting requirements to attend auctions can submit documents to attend auctions.

Previously, wavebands were allocated by state management agencies to enterprises. After that, enterprises had to attend exams for wavebands. 

In other words, frequency bands were allocated to companies for free and telecom carriers only had to pay waveband use fees in accordance with regulations promulgated by the Ministry of Finance (MOF).

However, the circumstances are now different, as the Law on Radio Frequency has taken effect and mobile network operators want to have good wavebands to provide high-quality services to customers. In order to do this, they have to attend auctions.

According to the Authority of Radio Frequency Management, the starting price for 2300-2400MHz waveband (3 blocks of wavebands) is VND17.394 trillion. All the A1 (2300 – 2330 Mhz), A2 (2330 – 2360 Mhz) and A3 (2360 – 2390 Mhz) blocks have the starting price of VND5.798 trillion and duration of use of 15 years.

Thus, telecom carrier will have to pay the waveband fee of VND386 billion a year at minimum, a figure which is absolutely not small for all network operators.

Meanwhile, to provide services, they will have to develop infrastructure and build up new business models for 5G, which will cost a big amount of money.

To build a mobile network with coverage nationwide, the initial investments would be no less than several billions of dollars.

According to MIC, Vietnam has 126 million mobile subscribers and the market is getting saturated. Telecom carriers are scrambling for 800,000 new subscribers that join the market every year.

Thai Khang