Carriers’ preparations
According to experts, 5G technology will give rise to a revolution of connectivity. If 2G, 3G and 4G connected seven billion people with one another, then 5G is expected to connect trillions of devices, transferring the entire physical world into a virtual world and transforming the life of humanity.That is why 5G is compared to a fundamental step towards the fourth industrial revolution as it will be the most important infrastructure for the Internet of Things. Any country wishing to take the lead in the new revolution must have a 5G network making a step ahead.
In Vietnam, in order to take advantage of the golden opportunities from being a pioneer in implementing this technology, the Ministry of Information and Communications has issued a plan to kick off 5G as soon as 2019.
Vietnam’s 5G plan is divided into three phases: testing in 2019, frequency band planning in 2019-2020 and commercial licensing in 2020. Viettel is the first carrier to be licensed for 5G trials and the other two big players Vinaphone and Mobifone will also receive their licenses in the near future.
The carriers are taking solid preparatory steps so as to implement 5G effectively. Viettel, for example, has spent US$40 billion on developing their own 5G chipsets, in addition to embarking on researching 5G technology.
After Viettel attended the Mobile World Congress 2019, its Acting Chairman Le Dang Dung stated that the world has already entered the age of 5G and the most important thing now is that Vietnam and Viettel in particular must catch up with that pace.
For now, most countries are still in the phase of 5G testing and official rollout is expected to happen next year. Viettel is working hard so that the company will be able to have its own 5G equipment in the next one to two years when the world has already commercialised 5G.
One to two years is not long but enough for Viettel to learn what is essential about 5G so that it will be able to keep up with the global technological trend. The company is confident that it could manufacture equipment through cooperation with other companies in the world.
Everything ready
With a desire to become one of the trailblazers in offering 5G services, VNPT also began researching the technology as soon as the definition of 5G was provided.
Recently, the group signed an agreement with Nokia to establish a research laboratory for technologies, applications, and solutions for the 5G mobile network. A VNPT representative stated that the company is also making preparations so that it will be able to manufacture 5G network equipment in order to gradually master this field as it once did with 2G, 3G, 4G and broadband Internet.
5G technology is highly important to development because it creates the foundation for digital transformation and IoT applications to build smart cities.
According to international telecommunications organisations, 2019 will be the starting year for 5G and the technology will mature around 2021-2022. The roadmap has been outlined and what was happening at MWC 2019 illustrates this clearly. At the show, most of the booths of leading corporations and countries in telecommunications were reserved to showcase 5G network equipment.
A number of major names such as Huawei, Xiaomi, LG and Samsung even introduced many 5G-capable devices. In order for this technology to become popular, there must be end-user devices, most importantly smartphones under US$100.
With signs in the market, most experts predict that 5G-capable smartphones will be available as soon as 2019 and become popular in 2019, with devices under US$100 available in late 2021 when 5G will truly boom.
