Vietnam's army telecom Viettel on Tuesday launched its 5G SA (Standalone) service, becoming the first commercial 5G service provider in the country.Viettel's 5G service can support up to 1Gbps bandwidth, which is more than 10 times that of its previous 4G service.

Viettel's current 5G service is targeted at both postpaid and prepaid subscribers. For postpaid subscribers, the monthly cost ranges from VND200,000 (60RMB) to VND2 million (600RMB) depending on the daily traffic limit (6GB to 50GB). For prepaid subscribers, the monthly cost ranges from VND135,000 to VND210,000 (4GB to 6GB of traffic). In addition, Viettel will also offer QoS packages for specific users, which can guarantee bandwidth and latency.FWA fixed wireless access and 5G dedicated networks are also within Viettel's 5G service scope.

Viettel started 5G testing in 2019, and by August this year it had completed 5G coverage in 63 provinces and cities across the country. Just last month, they reached an order with Nokia and Ericsson for 5G network expansion and 4G network upgrade. In March this year, it won the 2.5GHz-2.6GHz spectrum auction at the Ministry of Information and Communications of Vietnam. The Vietnamese government previously planned to achieve 99% 5G population coverage by 2025 with a bandwidth of at least 100 Mbps per second. Meanwhile, Vietnam has also already planned to shut down its 2G network by September 2026.

5G is not only gaining ground in Southeast Asia, as major mobile operators in the U.S. are showing signs of renewed 5G investment after a slowdown in the previous two years. 5G investment in 2022 is at an all-time high for AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, and analysts at KeyBanc Capital Markets point to investment catalysts taking shape, with the pace of construction picking up for the major tower companies. Ericsson's latest earnings report also shows they are reaping the rewards of the US market. They are the exclusive 5G equipment supplier to AT&T.

In China, China Mobile has recently announced that the centralized procurement project of base station pre-transmission equipment from 2024 to 2026 has the bidding conditions and is now open for bidding. Recently, China Mobile has also announced the results of the first batch of centralized procurement of equipment for the 5G messaging system phase III project in 2024.

Viettel is a Vietnam military electronic telecommunication company headquartered in Ba Dinh County, Hanoi, Vietnam.Viettel was founded in 2004.Viettel is exhibiting its self-developed 5G gNodeB transceiver equipment (8T8R, 32T32R), 5G gNodeB transceiver station at the Vietnam International Innovation Exhibition 2023 (VIIE 2023), 100G Site Router transmission equipment, and 5G high-frequency signal processing and transceiver modules.Viettel said that as a representative of making Vietnam the 6th country in the world with the ability to produce 5G network equipment in 2019, Viettel is currently the only company in the world that is both a telecom network operator and an exporter of product development and equipment.

CFOL, together with FNCA, will hold a symposium [CFCF Asia-Pacific Optical Connectivity Forum] in Bangkok, Thailand on November 29, 2024, and at the same time, together with LiuSheng Exhibition, we will organize a 10-day business trip (November 24-December 3) to Southeast Asia (Vietnam/Thailand/Malaysia), which will help optical communication enterprises to grasp the pulse of the industry development. We sincerely invite you to join us at this seminar to discuss the new future of manufacturing and globalization in Southeast Asia!