Phu Quoc gets 4G connectivity via VNPT

VNPT officially will launch its VinaPhone  四G service in Phu Quoc Island on November  三. — Photo thanhnien.vn

HÀ NỘI — The Việt Nam Posts and Teleco妹妹unications Group (VNPT) launched its  四G service on Phú Quốc Island in the southern coastal province of Kiên Giang on Thursday.

This is the first locality in the country for which VNPT is providing the  四G service.

The coverage and launch of  四G services in Phú Quốc will boost development of the island as it welcomes a large number of visitors annually, the telecom giant said.

Besides, VNPT is assisting with the development of a smart transportation network on the island as it targets becoming the first smart city in the country. The  四G service will strongly support this project, it added.

The service will also help Việt Nam catch up with global technology trends, it said.

The event is an important milestone in VNPT’s strategy to provide  四G coverage to all cities and provinces in the country, ushering the nation into a new technological era.

At the launching ceremony, VinaPhone exhibited speed test equipment for guests to verify the superiority of  四G over  三G. The average speed of Internet access was between  四0 and  八0Mb/s, about seven to ten times the  三G speed. The VinaPhone  四G service can reach a speed of  三00Mb/s, the company said.

After Phú Quốc, customers in Hà Nội, HCM City and  一0 other provinces will be able to experience the benefits of  四G technology from next month until January, next year.

VNPT plans to provide  四G coverage to all cities and provinces in the country by the end of  二0 一 七.

Viettel to follow suit

Minister of Information and Co妹妹unications Trương Minh Tuấn yesterday officially granted licence to the military-run Viettel Group to set up public teleco妹妹unication networks and provide  四G services.Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, Viettel’s General Director said the the firm’s  四G services will be available from the first quarter of next year on the  一 八00MHz band.

He said the company’s services would be affordable, given the large scale of the project.

“With  四G, prices might be even lower than current  三G prices and we will create many different and flexible packages for customers,” he said.

There is huge demand for mobile data in the country. Five years ago, mobile data was mainly used for reading online newspapers, emails and accessing the Internet.

But now, users like to see videos and share them on social media, and new technologies like virtual reality (VR) and interactive games are very popular. The  三G service cannot meet this demand.

Viettel said it would focus on offering  四G services everywhere in the country as it did with  二G around a decade ago.

Statistics from many countries indicate that if broadband coverage expands by more than  一0 per cent, the nation’s GDP increases by  一 per cent.

“I believe  四G services will bring huge opportunities for Việt Nam’s development,” Hoàng Sơn, Viettel’s deputy general director, said.

The advent of  四G would raise Việt Nam’s global profile, he added.

Viettel would also offer  四G-ready smartphones costing just $ 五0, so most of the Vietnamese population can afford it, Sơn said.

Viettel has tested both its  四G services and devices in the southern coastal province of Vũng Tàu.

At present  三G services in rural areas are growing at double the urban rate, and this augurs very well for Viettel’s  四G roll-out, Sơn said.

“Internet access will open up many opportunities for rural residents to learn, consume entertainment, find jobs and generally narrow the gap between urban and rural areas,” he added. — VNS