At the 5G conference held on October 24, Mr. Nguyen Van Son - Director of Viettel Telecom Mobile Center said that one of the questions that customers asked the most during the official 5G deployment in recent times was "Do I need to change my SIM to use the 5G network?".
According to Mr. Son, basically, 4G customers currently do not need to change their SIM to use 5G. Users of physical 4G SIM can connect to 5G without changing their SIM. With eSIM, you only need to register for a package to be able to connect to 5G.
To use 5G, customers need to ensure a number of factors: Subscribe to a network provider that provides 5G, be in an area with 5G waves, use a phone that supports 5G, turn on 5G mode on the phone and use a SIM card from 4G or higher.
Regarding users' feedback that when smartphones connect to the 5G network, data runs out faster, Mr. Son affirmed that 5G does not consume more data than 4G if using tasks and content with the same quality, especially for basic user needs such as accessing social networks and downloading documents.
Mr. Son explained that one of the main reasons why 5G consumes more data is that users can experience some services that require super-fast speeds that 4G previously had difficulty meeting, such as watching 4K high-resolution videos and using AR/VR virtual reality applications.
More importantly, the high speed of the 5G network also allows content to be downloaded in a very short time, unlike the slow download of previous 4G. According to calculations, a two-hour movie can be downloaded in 10 seconds.
In addition, in the early stages, many people had the habit of evaluating network speed using third-party tools, which consumed data on the device. For example, with Ookla Speedtest, each time measuring network quality, the application consumed from several hundred MB to nearly 1 GB of capacity.
On the morning of October 15, Viettel officially launched its commercial 5G service for users. This is also the first network operator in Vietnam to announce the commercial launch of this service.
Viettel representative said that it has installed more than 6,500 BTS stations, covering 100% of the "capitals" of 63 provinces and cities, industrial parks, tourist areas, seaports, airports, hospitals, and universities. The network speed can reach 1 Gbps, 10 times faster than current 4G and the latency is almost zero. The network operator also deploys simultaneously on two architectural platforms 5G NSA (Non-stand Alone) and 5G SA (Stand Alone).
In addition to Viettel, Vinaphone said it is implementing a free 5G trial program. During the period from October 13 to November 15, VinaPhone customers who already have a 5G phone while in a 5G coverage area will receive 50GB of data with a usage period of 30 days.
Meanwhile, MobiFone announced that customers will be able to experience 5G services starting in November. The company revealed that it will deploy a model of infrastructure sharing cooperation with carriers that have suitable 5G bands.
