The Ministry of Information and Communications will grant a 4G LTE licence in the second half of this year, Deputy Minister Phan Tam said at a meeting on April 27.

The Ministry of Information and Communications will grant a 4G LTE licence in the second half of this year, Deputy Minister Phan Tam said at a meeting on April 27.

Earlier, both VinaPhone and Viettel had piloted a 4G service under the approval of the ministry.

The deputy minister asked the Vietnam Telecommunications Authority (VNTA) to request enterprises to report the results of 4G testing and to establish guidelines for licensing documentation.

At a recent press conference, Deputy Minister Tam said the national programme on developing broadband by 2020 had focused on the construction of the 3G/4G mobile broadband infrastructure and was intended to serve 95 percent of the population by 2020.

He said conditions to adopt 4G in Vietnam came to fruition this year.

The ministry has prioritised the rollout of 4G in the country by establishing and protecting a healthy competitive market, boosting the development of content applications, and outlining policies on inter-sectorial public technology infrastructure usage.