First 5G station in operation in May
The first 5G base transceiver station (BTS) of Vietnam was installed on the rooftop of the central building of Viettel in Hoan Kiem district, Hanoi. The other two connection points of the station are installed at the headquarters of Viettel Net - No.19 Duy Tan street, and the head-office of Viettel group - No.1 Tran Huu Duc street. As scheduled, in early May, the station will officially operate, bringing new experiences of 5G services to subscribers in Vietnam.
According to Viettel, by June 2019, seventy 5G BTS of the group will have kicked off the implementation of the pilot in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The pilot aims to evaluate carefully and in details the coverage, capacity, and maximum speed of the network to prepare for the planning and design of a broader 5G system.
April 4 was the first day that the 5G network started to be offered commercially in the world by a number of service providers, such as SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus of the Republic of Korea and Verizon of the United States.
According to Colonel Tao Duc Thang, Deputy Director General of Viettel, Viettel will pilot offering 5G services in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The pilot will help Viettel devise an appropriate strategy for the operation of the 5G network.
Thang also revealed that 5G services include 4.0 technological applications providing high connection, automation, high speed data transfer, low transmission delay, which can help solve existing problems posed by older technologies.
Viettel is now working with other service providers to study and produce 5G gears. The 5G network requires not only consists of 5G BTS, but also the core network to support 5G terminal devices. Viettel formed its research and development group in 2015 and has set the targets of completing the first pilot version of 5G transmitting system in 2019, pilot-running the 5G station network in 2020 and providing commercial 5G services in 2021.
Thang said, “The 5G technology serves as the key to the opening of the door to Internet of Things. Apart from the much higher speed compared to the current technologies, the technology facilitates services at much lower online data transmission delay. The development of the 5G network will allow for broadband mobile data to be transferred at an unprecedentedly high speed”.
Opportunities for Vietnam to advance in world rankings
At the ASEAN conference on the fifth generation (5G) mobile network held recently in Vietnam, Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung affirmed that the pilot in 2019 and commercial run of 5G services in 2020 provide an opportunity for Vietnam to advance in the world telecom rankings, and Vietnam will be among the first countries to operate a 5G network.
The minister stressed that 5G helps the country improve connection services and advance in the world rankings, but also the ICT sector of Vietnam to develop. A high demand for network devices, a specially-high demand for terminal devices, a demand for security and safety and people’s demand for applications are likely to create a limitless market for Vietnamese technological businesses. Therefore, we should consider Vietnam as a cradle fostering technologies and technological products, from which we can reach out to the world. This opportunity is on us and we must consider it our historical responsibility for our country.
Earlier, the Ministry of Information and Communications signed a decision allowing Viettel to implement its 5G pilot program, making it the first service provider to own the license. The license is valid for one year, from January 22, 2019 to January 21, 2020, allowing Viettel to assess 5G technical and infrastructure capabilities and pilot the services in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City with the maximum points of service access not to exceed 73. Viettel is also allowed to use 2575 - 2615 MHz, 3700 - 3800 MHz and 2650 - 2750 MHz frequency bands for the pilot. After the trial period, the frequency resources will be returned to responsible bodies and Viettel has to report the results of the pilot to the Ministry of Information and Communications.
Earlier, at the conference rolling out missions in 2019 of the Ministry of Information and Communications, leaders of the ministry also affirmed that it is pushing forwards the licensing of 4G frequency for service providers and piloting 5G services. As planned, Ho Chi Minh City will be the first locality to enjoy the pilot of 5G services and prepare for the offering of commercial 5G services in 2020.
Translated by Huu Duong