Starlink is doing procedures to enter Vietnam

During a working session with Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Chi Dung on April 1, the Ministry of Science and Technology said it is taking many measures to promote digital infrastructure, including two main tasks this year: increasing mobile Internet speed by covering 5G and piloting telecommunications services using low-altitude satellites.

For the second mission, on March 23, the Government issued a decision for SpaceX, the company founded by Elon Musk, to conduct a controlled pilot in deploying telecommunications services using Starlink low-orbit satellite technology.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Chung, Director of the Telecommunications Department, said that he is working with SpaceX to support the company in completing the next steps before it can operate in Vietnam. Two things that need to be completed soon are SpaceX establishing the company and installing a Ground Gateway Station in Vietnam.

"They are preparing documents and equipment to bring to Vietnam," Mr. Chung said, adding that this will be completed this year.

Previously, the Government's decision also set out requirements and conditions for the pilot with SpaceX, such as a 5-year term and must end before January 1, 2031, with a maximum number of subscribers of 600,000, while ensuring national defense and security requirements. The provider must place a Ground Gateway Station (Gateway Station) on Vietnamese territory, ensuring that all traffic generated by satellite subscribers on Vietnamese territory passes through the Gateway Station and connects to the domestic public telecommunications network. The service must also ensure that information and data of service users in Vietnam are stored in Vietnam; and implement requirements on preventing sources of malware, cyber attacks, and malicious information.

SpaceX has not released any information about this. Previously, the company has repeatedly expressed its desire to provide satellite Internet coverage in Vietnam.

According to Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Manh Hung, the operation of satellite Internet will help to cover the Internet in remote areas. In addition, he also requested to increase the speed of mobile networks and assigned the Telecommunications Department to "double the speed of mobile Internet access this year".

According to the Department's representative, this unit will carry out comprehensive solutions to promote domestic 5G in particular and mobile Internet in general, including expanding coverage by accelerating station deployment; adding capacity to submarine optical cables; accelerating the opening of data centers; promoting access to 5G devices for users as well as reasonable packages.

Minister Nguyen Manh Hung has repeatedly affirmed the importance of digital infrastructure. Digital infrastructure is made up of pieces of broadband telecommunications infrastructure, cloud computing infrastructure, digital technology infrastructure and digital platforms.

According to the Minister, digital infrastructure should be considered as important as transport infrastructure, while the establishment is faster and cheaper. "Transport infrastructure is the flow of material. Digital infrastructure is the flow of data. These two flows must always be commensurate with each other. But digital infrastructure is much cheaper than transport infrastructure, can be done faster, can be modernized immediately," he said at the conference to implement Resolution 26 of the Politburo in November 2022.

The Ministry of Science and Technology has recently implemented many measures to promote the development of digital infrastructure, including contributing to the development of Resolution 193 of the National Assembly issued in February, and drafting a Decree detailing and guiding its implementation.

To develop telecommunications infrastructure, the State will participate in investing in digital infrastructure, especially 5G and submarine optical cables. "Normally, each network operator only invests around 5,000 5G stations per year. If we want them to invest 20,000 stations per year to quickly and early cover the network, the State must support them," said Mr. Nguyen Manh Hung at a conference in early March. The support level allowed by Resolution 193 is 15% of the total investment value, on the condition that the network operator deploys 20,000 new stations by the end of 2025. In fact, after the Resolution was issued, the Ministry said that two enterprises, Viettel and VNPT, planned to deploy 5G BTS stations reaching this level.

Mobile Internet has also seen many changes in recent times, after more than 5 months of 5G network deployment, with speeds reaching 144.5 Mbps as of February, ranking 19th in the world on Ookla's rankings.