Viettel Group has selected Nokia as an equipment supplier for the first nationwide 5G deployment in Vietnam.
Viettel Group has selected Nokia to supply equipment for the first nationwide 5G deployment, set to begin later this year in Vietnam's 22 provinces.
The deployment will cover 2,500 sites and includes baseband solutions, massive MIMO radios and remote radio heads from Nokia's 5G AirScale portfolio. The project, which will also upgrade Viettel's 4G infrastructure, is said to be the first 5G network in Vietnam to use locally manufactured equipment.
In a joint statement on Monday, Viettel Group President and CEO Tao Duc Thang said the latest 5G project with Nokia plays a critical role in driving digital transformation across Vietnam.
"5G technology supports the development of national digital infrastructure and a digital service ecosystem, creating opportunities for economic growth and increased productivity," he added.
Commercial deployment
Vietnam's telecom regulator, the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), is determined to launch commercial 5G services this year and has set a target of providing 5G coverage to 99% of the population by 2025, with a minimum data speed of 100 Mbit/s.
After years of delay, the MIC finally conducted a series of 5G spectrum auctions this year, with Viettel Group winning the first 5G license to operate in the 2500-2600MHz radio frequency band in Vietnam for the next 15 years.
Neither Viettel nor the MIC revealed financial details of the winning bid, but it was earlier reported that the government had set a starting price of 3.9 trillion Vietnamese dong (US$158 million) for the 2500-2600MHz band.
"The 2500-2600MHz band is of special importance as it is an efficient band for the deployment of both 4G and 5G mobile networks, thereby improving the quality of current 4G services and officially offering 5G services," the company said in a statement in March this year.
Preparing for 5G
The latest agreement between Viettel Group and Nokia brings Vietnam one step closer to the deployment of 5G technology.
"Nokia is proud to be Viettel Group's principal partner in this critical digital transformation project that will lay the foundations for Vietnam's future competitiveness," Tommi Uitto, president of mobile networks at Nokia, said in a joint statement. "Nokia has been a part of Vietnam's growth over the past three decades, and this initiative of enhancing local technology production continues to strengthen our bond with the country."
Viettel Group has been preparing for 5G deployment for at least five years, working with Nokia to test the first end-to-end 5G network in Ho Chi Minh City in 2019. At the time, the telecom operator was preparing for an early commercial launch.
In February last year, Nokia upgraded Viettel Group's dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) network to 600G per wavelength, which should enable the telco to meet future requirements for a low-latency and high-capacity network for 5G and the cloud amid growing demand for online video and Internet services.
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