The Viet Nam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) launched its 4G service on Phu Quoc Island in the southern coastal province of Kien Giang on November 3.

This is the first locality in the country for which VNPT is providing the 4G service.

The coverage and launch of 4G services in Phu Quoc will boost development of the island as it welcomes a large number of visitors annually, the telecom giant said.

Besides, VNPT is assisting with the development of a smart transportation network on the island as it targets becoming the first smart city in the country. The 4G service will strongly support this project, it added.

The service will also help Viet Nam catch up with global technology trends, it said.

The event is an important milestone in VNPT's strategy to provide 4G coverage to all cities and provinces in the country, ushering the nation into a new technological era.

At the launching ceremony, VinaPhone exhibited speed test equipment for guests to verify the superiority of 4G over 3G. The average speed of Internet access was between 40 and 80Mb/s, about seven to ten times the 3G speed. The VinaPhone 4G service can reach a speed of 300Mb/s, the company said.

After Phu Quoc, customers in Ha Noi, HCM City and 10 other provinces will be able to experience the benefits of 4G technology from next month until January, next year.

VNPT plans to provide 4G coverage to all cities and provinces in the country by the end of 2017.

Viettel to follow suit

Minister of Information and Communications Truong Minh Tuan yesterday officially granted licences to the military-run Viettel Group to set up public telecommunication networks and provide 4G services.

Nguyen Manh Hung, Viettel's General Director said the the firm's 4G services will be available from the first quarter of next year on the 1800MHz band.

He said the company's services would be affordable, given the large scale of the project.

"With 4G, prices might be even lower than current 3G prices and we will create many different and flexible packages for customers," he said.

There is huge demand for mobile data in the country. Five years ago, mobile data was mainly used for reading online newspapers, emails and accessing the Internet.

But now, users like to see videos and share them on social media, and new technologies like virtual reality (VR) and interactive games are very popular. The 3G service cannot meet this demand.

Viettel said it would focus on offering 4G services everywhere in the country as it did with 2G around a decade ago.

Statistics from many countries indicate that if broadband coverage expands by more than 10 per cent, the nation's GDP increases by 1 per cent.

"I believe 4G services will bring huge opportunities for Viet Nam's development," Hoang Son, Viettel's deputy general director, said.

The advent of 4G would raise Viet Nam's global profile, he added.

Viettel would also offer 4G-ready smartphones costing just $50, so most of the Vietnamese population can afford it, Son said.

Viettel has tested both its 4G services and devices in the southern coastal province of Vung Tau.

At present 3G services in rural areas are growing at double the urban rate, and this augurs very well for Viettel's 4G roll-out, Son said.

"Internet access will open up many opportunities for rural residents to learn, consume entertainment, find jobs and generally narrow the gap between urban and rural areas," he added.