VietNamNet Bridge – Relevant agencies still argue about which frequency band to use for LTE 4G which is expected to be launched in Vietnam after 2015.

According to the Radio Frequency Department under the Ministry of Information and Communication, the waveband to be chosen for LTE 4G in Vietnam needs to have some different requirements. It needs to be used and supported by many countries. Especially, it needs to have ripe technology which allows to use equipment at reasonable prices, affordable to Vietnamese users.

Deputy Director of the department -- Le Van Tuan, stressed that the wave band popular in the world would better facilitate the development. There are several choices for Vietnam: the 700 MHz waveband, which would be available after the radio and television development reprogramming, the wavebands now being used for GSM networks (CDMA 850 MHz, GSM 900 MHz, 1800 MHz), or the new wavebands such as 2 GHz or 1.5 GHz.

Tuan also said that it is now the right time for Vietnam to prepare the waveband for broadband mobile in the near future, once it is now a growing tendency in the world.

The radio frequency department thinks that the wavebands with the advantages in the coverage area would be more important, such as 2 GHz or 1.5 GHz.

However, the department has not made the final decision, because it still needs to consider many other factors, including the popularity of the frequency band in the world.

The Ministry of Information and Communication has every reason to take cautious steps in choosing waveband for 4G network in Vietnam. A high technology product sometimes cannot be succeeded in commercial development. Mobile WiMax is a typical example.

Some years ago, WiMax emerged as a technology with great potentials. However, the commercial development has not been as successful as expected in many markets in the world, except in the US.

In Vietnam, the Ministry of Information and Communication in 2008 granted seven licenses allowing to develop the technology in Vietnam in a pilot program. However, the licensed network operators have stopped the program, while none of them has officially provided services.

In early 2012, ITU, the International Telecommunication Union, announced the standards for 4G which have the transmission speed faster by 500 times than the 3G standards, which is compared with the fiber cable for mobile devices.

The radio interface standard IMT-Advanced, comprises of two kinds of ratio interface, namely LTE-Advanced, developed by 3GPP, and WirelessMAN-Advanced developed by IEEE.

In January 2012, local newspapers reported that Vietnam considered allocating the 2.6 GHz for LTE technology in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, European network operators tend to choose 1800 MHz, 800 MHz and 900 MHz.

However, experts said that in principle, the waveband allocation and use in Europe is different from that in Vietnam and Asia Pacific countries. Therefore, Vietnam should not program its 4G network based on the European waveband 800 MHz.

Qualcomm stated that it supports Vietnam in allocating the 2.6 GHz and 700 MHz for broadband mobile, including LTE, stressing that this is the best way for Vietnam to follow to ensure that Vietnamese users can have high connectivity with reasonable priced devices.

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