Vietnam plans to launch commercial 5G services this year

Last year, Vietnamese government granted first trial 5G license to Viettel, the country’s military-run and largest telecommunication company.

Vingroup, Vietnam’s biggest-listed firm by market value, signed a deal with Qualcomm and a unit of Japan’s Fujitsu Ltd to produce 5G smartphones in the country.

Vietnam is building a roadmap to eliminate 2G mobile technology from 2022 while improving network quality and speed of mobile communication services.

5G mobile service which is a very important infrastructure of the digital economy and digital society is the key infrastructure for digital transformation with the development of digital payment, mobile money, IoT, Big Data, AI ...

Mastering 5G is national strategic significance while Vietnam is one of a few countries in the world can produce 5G devices, ministry said in statement.

Vietnam also plans to upgrade and improve rankings for telecommunications, the ICT Development Index. As of end-2020, Vietnam is expected to have a rank of 38 to 39 from current 80 to 85.

Last year, Minister of Information and Communication Nguyen Manh Hung said the country will test 5G network and ensure nationwide coverage by 2020.

The number of 5G subscriptions in Vietnam could hit 6.3 million by 2025 or 6 percent of its total’s mobile subscriptions, according to technology conglomerate Cisco.