Vietnam - Debate about 4G licensing time still burns

Minister of Information and Communication Nguyen Bac Son has said that the ministry will only consider licensing 4G licenses by 2018, giving more time to help enterprises take back their investment capital from 3G network.

As such, the minister’s statement has given the final answer to the question when Vietnam should begin providing 4G services. However, in fact, opinions about the time to license 4G services still vary.

The draft national strategy on telecom development by 2020 said that by 2014, Vietnam would begin experimenting next-generation mobile services, while the providing of the services would be carried out from 2015. By 2018, Vietnam would consider re-arranging the wavebands now being used for 2G networks, radio and broadcasting so as to use for the next-generation mobile information system (IMT advance – 4G).

Son said that it is necessary to define the moment for businesses breaking even to decide the moment of licensing. This means that only when enterprises can break even or nearly break even and take back their investment capital in the previous technologies, will the ministry consider licensing the next technologies. If not, there might be a technology race which would lead to the waste of money and ineffective operation of enterprises.

However, Pham Hong Hai, Director of the Telecom Agency, said that it is very difficult to define the time of breaking even of a technology. The 2G service is a typical example. By 2009, when Vietnam began licensing 3G services, some enterprises still had not made profits with their 2G services. Meanwhile, others all had made fat profits already.

Meanwhile, other countries in the world began implementing 3G since 2000, while Vietnam seemed to be late when beginning providing 3G services in 2009.

“Therefore, even if enterprises do not apply 3G technology, their 2G would still be bad,” Hai said, adding that by 2015, Vietnamese would have six years of implementing 3G, the time is long enough to develop a new generation of technology.

By that time, Hai said, the 4G technology would be perfect; the terminal devices would be cheap, which means high success possibility. Therefore, Hai believes that 2015 is the reasonable time for Vietnam to license 3G services.

Meanwhile, according to Deputy Minister of Information and Communication Le Nam Thang, the words in the draft strategy in telecom development may lead to misunderstanding. The technology generation should be understood as to be implemented on the wavebands of 2.3 and 2.5 for LTE and Wimax technology generations at present, and these would be 3.5 or 3.9G, not 4G.

Meanwhile, the 4G technology in the draft strategy would be implemented from 2018 and on the waveband of 700 or 800 and 900.

Thang went on to say that only by 2018 will the ministry consider licensing 4G services, and this does not mean that the ministry forces enterprises to implement 4G. The period of 7-8 years is long enough for technologies to change a lot. And it is not sure which standards would come out, or the world would skip 4G and march directly towards 4.5G.

Meanwhile, in mid 2011, at a conference reviewing the implementation of 3G held by the ministry, representatives of some telecom companies expressed their viewpoint that 4G services could be mentioned from 2013-2014.

Truong Dinh Anh, General Director of FPT (the Corporation for Financing and Promoting Technology), said at the conference reviewing the six month operation of 2011 that in two years, when the terminal devices get cheap enough and 4G technology gets ripe, this would be the right time to implement the technology.

Source: VNN

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