However, with the incident of Covid-19 come several opportunities to make better use of 5G in answering the demands of the community.

The earliest to pilot 5G technology in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) was Viettel Military Industry and Telecoms Group (Viettel) on September 21, 2019, along with the Internet of Things (IoT) platform.

This has marked the milestone of Vietnam as one of the first in the world to run this cutting edge technology. The pilot was corresponding with the standardization route of the 3^rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).

In March 2020, Vietnam Mobile Telecom Services One Member Limited Liability Company (MobiFone) followed the step with the introduction of its first 5G stations in the 4 major cities of Hanoi, Hai Phong, Da Nang, and HCMC. MobiFone is now technologically ready for the launch of 5G in the country.

The latest to successfully pilot this technology was Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) on April 24, 2020 in Hanoi and HCMC. Results have shown that the speed of 5G reaches over 2.2Gbps, 10 times as quick as its 4G counterpart, plus the ideal latency of nearly 0.

Obviously, these achievements are offering valuable chances for the launch of lucrative apps implementing 5G for socio-economic development as well as smart city and e-government establishment. The new technology will also become the competitive advantage of Vietnam in attracting international hi-tech investments, aiming at creating global breakthroughs.

Gaining such impressive piloting results, VNPT shared that it would not stop at merely delivering high-speed data services but rather create a digital ecosystem for its users while focusing on perfecting necessary applications for the construction of the e-government and smart cities in Vietnam.

Sharing the same enthusiasm, MobiFone stated that with its capacity and determination, it is ready to participate in the technological race with other major domestic and international telecoms enterprises.

Viettel itself displayed its high expectation when concentrating on developing its own 5G gNodeB equipment from June to December 2019. It aims at becoming the sixth in the world to supply this essential device and being more active in implementing 5G value added services in its mobile network.

As planned, in June 2020, Viettel is going to pilot the first stage of the commercialization process for 5G Microcell stations, which is a very promising future for smart device owners.

Vien Hong (SGGP)

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