The news was confirmed by a representative of the Department of Telecommunication under the Ministry of Information and Communications. 

Accordingly, they will compete for licenses for using the A1 (2300 – 2330 Mhz), A2 (2330 – 2360 Mhz), and A3 (2360 – 2390 Mhz) frequencies at the starting price of VND 5,798 billion and a life span of 15 years.

There will be only three network operators licensed for the 2300-2400 MHz frequency. 

Vietnamobile is in dire need of new bands to provide services to customers, because the network operator currently has the fewest bandwidth resources. 

Previously, it entered into a partnership with EVN Telecom to get a license for 3G band. After EVN Telecom joined Viettel, Vietnamobile maintained half of the band. 

Without the 4G and 5G bands, Vietnammobile will not have many opportunities  to provide mobile broadband services to customers in the future.

However, paying at least nearly VND400 billion per year for the license and investing to expand  coverage and purchasing 4G and 5G equipment is a problem for Hutchison. 

This investor’s investment when the Vietnamese mobile market was still fertile has caused Hutchison to fall into a "dilemma" in the Vietnamese market, even though it reportedly has the best management system and cost optimization.

For Viettel, VNPT and MobiFone, they will need the band to improve service quality, especially 4G service. However, VND 5,798 billion as the starting price is also a big investment for these carriers.

Earlier, the Ministry of Information and Communications licensed telecommunications service providers to test 5G services in 40 provinces and cities. 

According to international telecommunications equipment suppliers, 5G will mostly replace physical infrastructure in creation of future social connections and platforms. 

This digital infrastructure creates connections not only between people, but also between people and machines, and between machines and machines. 

This contributes to automation as well as transformation between industries.

Experts said that for Vietnam, 4G will still be important and exist for a long time. 

Investing in 4G is important, because in the next few years 4G will still be popular in the country. 

5G will be developed in industrial zones and big cities and then will develop rapidly from 2025. 

By 2030, 5G is expected to bring Vietnamese mobile network operators $1.5 billion in revenue. 

Thai Khang