The Ministry of information Technology and Communications has licensed local telecom carriers Viettel and MobiFone to launch the commercial pilot of the fifth-generation (5G) network.

The commercial pilot is aimed at helping telecom carriers assess their technology and the market before officially providing 5G services, Vietnamplus news site reported.

Viettel was permitted to conduct the pilot in Hanoi City with the pilot scale not exceeding 140 sites, while MobiFone will launch the 5G commercial pilot in HCMC with no more than 50 sites in the city.

Their licenses will be valid until June 30 next year.

If Viettel and MobiFone want to increase the scale of the pilot, they must ask for approval from the Ministry of Information Technology and Communications. They must also comply with regulations on the management of telecom quality, ensure network and information security and return the pilot licenses to the ministry when they are no longer valid or whenever required. SGT