Eliminating telecom wave depression areas is a major policy of the information and communication sector. The campaign initiated in September 2021 aims to support online learning and encourage the development of digital society.

According to MIC’s Authority of Communications, by January 1, 2021, as many as 2,418 hamlets had been listed as telecom wave depression areas, where mobile waves did not cover. The figure was from reports by local authorities.

By the time the program ‘Song va may tinh cho em’ (internet connection and computers for students) was launched in September 2021 (Internet connection and computers for students) by the government, Vietnam still had 2,000 mobile wave depression areas. However, the number dropped sharply after one year.

The program aims to mobilize 1 million computers, and ensure mobile service coverage for students who had to study online during Covid-19.

As of the end of Q3 2022, telecom waves covered 2,152 hamlets more out of a total 2,418 wave depression hamlets, including 1,380 hamlets in 2021 and 772 in 2022.

As such, after one year of the program, the information and communications sector has covered 89 percent of depression hamlets throughout the country.

From a broader perspective, telecom carriers have covered 99.72 percent of villages nationwide with telecom waves, an increase of 2.18 percent compared to 2021.

According to the Authority of Telecommunications, there are still 226 hamlets with a telecommunication wave still unreachable (0.27 percent of hamlets and villages) because 148 of them don’t have electricity, or have electricity from the national grid but conditions are not good enough for BTS to operate.

Meanwhile, 50 out of the other 88 hamlets have fewer than 50 households. In addition, telecom carriers still cannot set up BTS in 30 hamlets because of weather conditions and terrain.

Vietnam has 81.8 million broadband mobile phone subscribers, an increase of 20.6 percent compared with the same period last year. The ratio of broadband mobile subscribers is 83 subscribers per 100 people.

As for fixed broadband subscribers, there are 20.73 million, up by 11.11 percent over the same period last year. It is estimated that the figure would reach 21.7 million by the end of this year, or 22 subscribers per 100 people.

As of the end of September, the number of Vietnamese households using fiber optical cable internet had accounted for 72.2 percent of internet users, up by 13.9 percent. MIC predicted that the figure would reach 75 percent by the end of this year.

Trong Dat