Viettel has officially kicked off the 4G new race among mobile network operators, stating that it will begin providing 4G services in October.

Dat Viet quoted Viettel’s deputy CEO Do Minh Phuong as saying that Viettel is gearing up to prepare for the service launch. It has signed contracts on equipment procurement and will install equipment soon.

Viettel is gearing up to prepare for the service launch (Source: vinanet.vn)

The telecom group hopes to complete the installation of 12,000 4G BTS (base transceiver stations) by the end of 2015 or early 2016 at the latest, to ensure coverage throughout the country.

Viettel plans to set up 23,000 BTS more by the end of the year to raise the total number of BTS it possesses to 90,000.

This includes 40,000 3G BTS, 38,000 2G BTS and 12,000 4G to be installed in the time to come.

Meanwhile, Zing quoted a senior executive of VinaPhone as saying that the telco would also start 4G services in October or November, and that subscribers will not have to change sim cards to be able to use 4G.

The executive said 4G and 3G fees would be nearly the same, even though the investment rate for 4G BTS is higher than 3S.

“We hope we can cut the 4G fee to levels lower than 3G,” he stated.

Meanwhile, MobiFone is silent about its plan to provide 4G services. However, analysts all believe that the big player, one of the three most powerful mobile network operators (VinaPhone, Viettel, MobiFone), will not stay out of the 4G race.

“MobiFone will have to jump on the bandwagon,” an analyst said.

He said that as the voice- and text-service market has become saturated, mobile network operators will have to enter a new race which will determine market share for each operator.

Mobile phone subscribers have expressed their excitement about the telcos’ statements.

Phuong, who lived in Laos for several years, said he enjoyed using 4G because of the higher speed than 3G. “I hope I can use 4G services in 2015 in Vietnam,” he said.

A MobiFone subscriber said he would become a client of the mobile network operator that first provides 4G in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, other subscribers are cautious when talking about 4G. Nguyen Khanh, a Zing reader, commented that 4G will be better because it is the latest technology. However, the network access speed will still depend on mobile network operators’ bandwidth.

Vietnamnet.vn