Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnam's 5G network is forecast to have a bright future with Governmentand regulator support while domestic manufacturing of 5G handsets could lowerdevice costs and lend tailwinds to adoption.

Accordingto analysts from Fitch Solutions, 5G appears to be high on the Government’spriority list, with the earliest services set to be commercialised in mid-2020following trials conducted through 2019.

“Webelieve the impact will be greatest in the enterprise segment, particularly inViệt Nam’s rapidly growing manufacturing sector, with Government initiativessupporting industry uptake. At the consumer level, we expect early launches tocentre on larger, higher-income cities, with operators likely to focus on bothmobile and fixed-wireless services,” the analysts said.

Whilefibre-based broadband connections in Vietnam have grown significantly inrecent quarters, Fitch believed that fixed-wireless 5G could still serve as acomplement to existing fixed services and support the development and adoptionof higher bandwidth services, such as virtual reality (VR) video streaming andcloud gaming applications.

“Weanticipate a potential delay to 5G launches as a result of the Covid-19pandemic, which has forced operators to increase investments into theirexisting 4G networks and raise bandwidth on existing fixed broadbandconnections; reportedly, Viettel had to double bandwidth for allfibre-to-the-home (FTTH) subscribers and, together with other State-ownedoperators VNPT-Vinaphone and Mobifone, introduce bigger mobile dataallocations.”

Theanalysts said while these short term moves could put investments into 5Gnetworks on the backburner, the Government could pressure the State-ownedoperators to focus on 5G deployment. Licences and spectrum are yet to beallocated, although the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) couldconvert 5G trial licences, allocated in 2019, into commercial licences.

ThroughResolution 52, introduced in September 2019, the Government aims to activelyinvolve itself in the wider adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies to drive thecountry’s economic growth.

“Weexpect the government to lend support to the wider 5G ecosystem through thecreation of test beds, or through enterprise grants to adopt 5G technologies,”Fitch said.

TheMIC is already looking at licensing certain frequencies to domesticmanufacturers of 5G products, and has stated that it will support thedevelopment of 5G-capable chips, although further details have not beendisclosed.

Viettelhas 5G partnerships with Ericsson and Nokia, while Mobifone has an agreementwith Samsung. VNPT-Vinaphone is working with Nokia. Vietnamese conglomerateVingroup signed an agreement with Fujitsu and Qualcomm in June 2019 to jointlydevelop and manufacture 5G-compatible handsets in Vietnam.

Accordingto Fitch analysts, the wider availability of low-cost 5G devices in Vietnam will support uptake, primarily among cost-conscious consumers.

“Interms of industry applications, we expect to see strong use of 5G in themanufacturing sector. Adoption of 5G-enabled sensors across the production lineis a certainty, although this will centre most largely on the use of privatenetworks in the short run, such as those developed by private players likeSigfox. Operators have made no indication of their 5G plans for the enterpriseand industrial sectors, although we expect them to look at developing 5Gnetworks in key economic zones and industrial areas,” the analysts said./.