VietNamNet Bridge - Despite advice against the early deployment of 5G, the government of Vietnam and the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) have taken the first steps toward 5G.

The first license for 5G, the fifth-generation mobile technology, IMT 2020, has been granted to the military telco Viettel. The experiments will be carried out in 73 places in Hanoi and HCMC.

Viettel now has the right to use the frequency bands 2575 - 2615 MHz, 3700 - 3800 MHz and 26500 - 27500 MHz to implement experiments. 

The licensing occurred several days after a MIC conference on tasks in 2019 which put emphasis on the time to begin 5G. It is expected that HCMC will be the first city in the country to use 5G services before 5G becomes commercialized in 2020.

Along with the trial of 5G, MIC will continue granting licenses for 4G services and consider a roadmap to stop 2G and 3G.

Thieu Phuong Nam, CEO of Qualcomm Vietnam, said the world has begun 5G and now is the right time for Vietnam to take the first steps to implement 5G.

The first license for 5G, the fifth-generation mobile technology, IMT 2020, has been granted to the military telco Viettel. The experiments will be carried out in 73 places in Hanoi and HCMC.

Qualcomm has been preparing well for the 5G era. It is expected that it will have about 30 devices, mostly smartphones using 5G chips, to be marketed in 2019.

According to Nam, the mobile telecom industry needs about 10 years to commercialize one new telecom platform. This could be seen in the development process of 3G, 4G and 5G.

Regarding Vietnam’s telecommunication, to prepare for the launch of 3G 10 years ago, Qualcomm had to work with all mobile ecosystems here for five to seven years. It has been working with partners in the mobile ecosystem in Vietnam since the commercialization of 4G began two years ago.

4G is still developing well all over the globe, including Vietnam. The representative of Qualcomm said there are still many things for Vietnam to do to improve 4G.

“While the entire world is preparing for 5G, the good quality of 4G LTE will serve as an important platform for Vietnam to march towards 5G. Developing 4G will still be a key task in the immediate time,” Nam said.

Not only is it experimenting with 5G, Viettel is also following an ambitious plan on manufacturing telecom equipment. It hopes that by 2020 that 80 percent of the core network infrastructure will be Viettel products.

Also by that time, Viettel plans to finish the first phase of the project on researching and designing specimen chipsets and 5G BTS.

The plan would match its service launch roadmap, in which 2019-2020 would be the time to test 5G infrastructure equipment. By 2021, 5G would be available in urban areas, and by 2023, it would be available throughout the country.