Vietnam will pilot a fifth-generation (5G) network next year and officially provide the service in 2020, said Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung.

Customers test the locally made Bphone 3 at a launch event. Vietnam will make 5G service available in 2020 

At a seminar on Vietnam’s innovation, jointly held by the Ministry of Information and Communications and the Party Central Committee's Economic Commission on November 14, Minister Hung said that 5G would make mobile internet speed much faster than 3G and 4G, helping the country develop the economy and keep pace with other countries.

Experts participating in the seminar also agreed that new technologies, especially 5G, would help the country keep abreast of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

According to Hung, 2G technology was developed in 1990, and Vietnam launched a 2G mobile network three years later. However, the country could only start making 3G available 10 years after the service came out.

Vietnam has also lagged behind other countries in the development of a 4G network, with a gap of eight years.

Thanks to the early exploitation of the 2G service, Vietnam was listed as one of the 20 countries having the best mobile networks. However, the country has since dropped to the 100th position. The International Telecommunication Union last year put Vietnam at 115th among 193 countries and territories in terms of mobile broadband subscriptions.

The country is likely to improve its ranking if it develops a 5G network early, Hung remarked.

He pointed out that 100% of 2G and 3G devices are imported from other countries, and 4G devices were produced at home eight years after the launch of 4G technology.

However, 5G devices will be developed locally when 5G technology is officially introduced in Vietnam, which is considered a milestone for the local telecom sector.

The Ministry of Information and Communications will make conditions favorable for domestic technical firms to develop telecom equipment, Hung pledged, setting an ambitious target for Vietnam to become one of the exporters of telecom equipment. 

He called on experts and enterprises to help the ministry work out appropriate policies to boost the country’s technology development.

At the seminar, Cao Duc Phat, deputy head of the Party Central Committee's Economic Commission, said that digital technology is crucial to the country's eGovernment development, and 5G is the key factor in infrastructure connectivity in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

SGT