5G signage is seen at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, February 28, 2018. Photo by REUTERS/Yves Herman
State-run telecoms giant Viettel has successfully tested Vietnam’s first standalone 5G network, laying the foundation for future commercial services.
The company announced on Monday that it had completed the tests, three months after receiving a 5G spectrum license from the Ministry of Information and Communications.
“This marks a major step towards the launch of 5G commercial services,” Viettel said in a statement, without giving a launch date.
Standalone 5G networks use equipment built specifically for 5G services, while non-standalone networks leverage existing 4G infrastructure. Standalone 5G equipment offers more services, flexibility and scalability than 4G equipment, but it also costs more.
By the end of the first quarter of this year, 58 of the 175 countries that were testing or commercializing 5G had successfully tested standalone 5G networks.
Viettel said the standalone equipment will enable it to provide both private and corporate users with advanced services such as calls with translation and high-speed data transfers. The company added that standalone 5G could also replace fiber optic networks.
Viettel is currently working with leading Vietnamese smartphone brands to upgrade their products’ firmware to support connectivity with standalone 5G networks.
In 2019, Viettel was also the first company in Vietnam to make a call using a non-standalone 5G network.
Vietnam is set to launch commercial 5G services this year, with three operators who have successfully acquired 5G frequencies: Viettel, VNPT, and MobiFone.
