The Vietnam Military Electronics and Telecommunications Corporation (Viettel) deployed an end-to-end 5G network in an area of Ho Chi Minh City using equipment from Nokia.
In a statement, Nokia said it was able to rapidly deploy the network using the operator’s existing LTE infrastructure. It installed 10 5G base stations in the region and upgraded the entire infrastructure including radio access, cloud core network and bearer.
The companies said they will use the pilot to evaluate 5G’s spectrum utilization, coverage and applications ahead of full commercial availability in 2020.
Tao Duc Thang, deputy general manager of Viettel Group, said: “The official launch of 5G in Ho Chi Minh City is an important milestone in Viettel’s strategy to make Vietnam one of the first 5G commercial countries in the world.”
The military-backed Viettel demonstrated Vietnam’s first 5G connection with Ericsson in May. The operator, which has a 41% share of subscribers, won a trial license in January this year using the 3.8GHz and 28GHz frequency bands for testing in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, and has invested $40 million in 5G.
The Links: 6MBI100FC-060 6MBP30RTB060-50