Vietnamese telco Viettel said that it has officially surpassed its commitment to the government to deploy 20,000 new 5G sites in Vietnam before the end of this year.
In a LinkedIn post, Viettel said its 5G network now covers 90% of outdoor areas and 70% of indoor areas, from urban centres to rural regions.
Viettel also claimed that it has deployed both 5G standalone (SA) and 5G non-standalone (NSA) at 100% of its 5G sites, with its 5G SA sites capable of delivering speeds of up to 10 Gbps with ultra-low latency.
Viettel also touted its role in developing a domestic ecosystem for 5G SA equipment via its R&D arm, Viettel High Tech, which includes 5G gNodeB base stations, a 5GC core network system, and the vOCS 4.0 charging system. Viettel High Tech has also developed its own 5G DFE chipset.
Viettel said its 5G SA solutions “have already been deployed at large scale, helping Vietnam move toward full autonomy in next-generation telecommunications and positioning the country for future high-tech exports.”
That said, Viettel’s 4G and 5G networks sport plenty of equipment from other vendors. Its 5G Open RAN gNodeB – which was commercially launched in October 2024 – was developed in collaboration with Qualcomm using its 5G RAN platforms. The same year, Viettel signed contracts with Ericsson and Nokia to expand its 5G network and upgrade its 4G network.
Viettel commercially launched its 5G SA network in October 2024, seven months after receiving its 5G spectrum licence from the Ministry of Information and Communications after winning the first round of an auction for the 2500-2600 MHz band. In May this year, Viettel secured a block 700-MHz spectrum to boost capacity for its 4G and 5G networks.
According to state media reports, Viettel had signed on 10 million 5G subscribers by October this year (up from 6 million in July), and was on track to hit 12 million users by the end of 2025.
All three of Vietnam’s mobile operators – Viettel, MobiFone and VNPT’s Vinaphone – launched 5G services in 2024, and have been in rapid rollout mode ever since.
