VietNamNet Bridge - VinaPhone subscribers on the islands of Phu Quoc and in HCM City can now use 4G services and pay charges for 3G services.

VNPT - VinaPhone Corporation on January 18 began testing 4G services in Phu Quoc and HCM City. During the test phase, VinaPhone will provide 4G services over entire Phu Quoc with 50 4G base stations and some districts in the center of HCM City with 100 stations.

A month earlier, Viettel began a 4G trial in the southern city of Vung Tau in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province.

Regarding the charges for the 4G services, VinaPhone applies similar rates to 3G services. Subscribers can change from 3G to 4G SIMs for free at six VinaPhone offices.

VinaPhone clients can experience several 4G services, including high-quality video (Mobile TV), live streaming video transferring services (Mobile Broadcast), video conferencing (Cloud Video Conferencing) and virtual computer services (DAAS).

"These services need very high speed and volume of data, latency-sensitiveness, which show that the average speed of 4G will be 10-20 times higher than 3G. Latency of services is low; especially coverage is much more stable than that of 3G," a senior official of VinaPhone said.

Representatives of the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) said that after getting the 4G licensee, VNPT-VinaPhone will install more 4G base stations in large cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Hai Phong, Can Tho and some provinces as Ca Mau, Bac Lieu, Kien Giang, Nam Dinh ...

4G is the fourth generation of mobile telecommunications technology, with the speed of up to 1-1.5 Gigabits per second, which is several hundred times higher than 3G. A 4G system must provide capabilities defined by ITU in IMT Advanced.

Potential and current applications include amended mobile web access, IP telephony, gaming services, high-definition mobile TV, video conferencing, 3D television, and cloud computing.

Mobile service providers in Vietnam began testing 4G as mobile data services in Vietnam thrived strongly in recent years in terms of the number of subscribers, not the connection speed. The Ministry of Information and Communication has said licences will be provided for 4G services in 2017. However, some operators want to implement the services in 2016.

Mai Lan