(VOVWORLD) - Commercial 5G services are expected to be released on a large scale in Vietnam this year, according to Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam.
 Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam addresses the Ministry of Information and Communications conference, January 12, 2020. (Source: cand.com.vn) |
Mr. Dam told a the Ministry of Information and Communications conference on Tuesday that Vietnam is one of the first countries in the world to begin commercial 5G trials and the services will be expanded in 2021.
“Without a bold digital transformation, we’ll lag behind. We were fast in 2G, medium-paced in 3G, and slow in 4G compared with other countries. We are pretty fast in 5G but are now only in the trial phase. If our deployment of 5G is as fast as 2G, we’ll enjoy lots of opportunities,” he said.
Mr. Dam urged digital companies to lead the way and introduce more digital platforms to people and businesses. So far, 40 digital platforms developed by Vietnam have been put into use.
Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung said Vietnam was between 8 and 10 years behind the world deploying 3G and 4G.
Major telecom providers VNPT, MobiFone, and Viettel have been commercially trialing 5G services. Since November, users of these three providers could have tried 5G connections themselves in trialed areas and with 5G-supported smartphones.
5G trials by VNPT and Viettel boasted a speed of up to 1 Gbps, 10 times greater than that of 4G.
Telecom providers in Vietnam are expecting to price 5G services at the same rate as their 4G equivalents, and would not require users to change their SIM cards.