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Both Viettel and Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) won 5G licences, allowing them to move from trials to full commercialisation
Vietnam’s journey towards commercial 5G has been a bumpy one. Despite arguably being one of the leaders in the technology around 2020 through various technical projects, commercial deployment has been heavily delayed due to multiple failed spectrum auctions. In fact, the country’s Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) had not successfully auctioned spectrum for roughly 15 years.
Thankfully, this trend has finally come to and end, with the MIC announcing the successful conclusion of two 5G spectrum auction processes.
The auctions themselves took place last month and saw Viettel win a licence in the 2.5–2.6 GHz band, while VNPT win a licence in the 3.7–3.8 GHz band.
The funds raised from the auctions were not announced, but the reserve prices were set at $166.6 million and $81.25 million for the licences, respectively.
A third auction, offering spectrum in the 3.8–3.9 GHz band also took place at the end of the month, but this licence went unsold due to lack of interest.
“The auction marked a historical milestone, as this was the first time it was implemented under the new regulations. It is important for the industry and we expect to open a new era for 5G,” said Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Huy Dung.
The auction was open to all prospective bidders, not only the country’s telcos, but new entrants were considered unlikely due to the highly competitive nature of the market and the relative lack of 5G device penetration.
As part of the licencing agreements, both operators will be expected to launch commercial 5G services within a year, with the government seeking for coverage to be increased to 99% of the population by 2030, delivering a minimum of 100 Mbps data rates.
Viettel has said it will seek to launch services “as soon as possible”.
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