The nation's largest telecommunications company will unveil its 5G network for commercial use beginning in June 2020.
The military-run corporation announced on Friday that it will be the sixth company in the world to provide the fast mobile network using self-developed software and equipment. On the day it issued its announcement, it successfully completed a trial 5G video call.
Currently only Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei, Samsung and ZTE have developed their own 5G equipment for commercial access. The fifth-generation internet technology, which was first successfully tested in Japan in 2015 and launched to the public in South Korea in 2019, is currently in various stages of testing around the world. A limited number of nations including the United States, United Kingdom, Singapore and China have already begun offering it for commercial purposes.
Experts claim 5G will have revolutionary effects beyond simply increasing mobile internet speeds to up to 1Gb/s for individual users and thus facilitating faster downloads and streaming. It will be able to more efficiently connect appliances, cars, industrial machines, medical devices, homes, utility grids, infrastructure systems and entire cities. The more reliable and faster connections will, in theory, allow for self-driving cars, virtual reality systems, remote medical procedures and control of industrial and agricultural facilities.
In 2018, Vietnam first announced plans to bring 5G technology to the country. In late 2019, Viettel made Saigon's Districts 10 and 12 the nation's first localities with access to 5G.
Southeast Asia in general, and Vietnam in particular, is expected to rapidly embrace 5G technology. Total subscribers in the nation could reach 6.3 million people, or 6% of total mobile subscriptions, by 2025. According to Naveen Menon, Southeast Asia president of the multinational technology company Cisco, if Vietnam invests US$1.5-2.5 billion in infrastructure between 2020 and 2025, national telecommunications companies could increase revenue by up to US$300 million each year starting in 2025 thanks to the technology.
[Photo via Bao Moi]
