“Can I ride your car? The machine will tell you how much it is, I will charge you a cheaper price” - an old motorbike taxi driver with no customers, standing on the side of the road, begged a girl who was about to book a ride on an app. He could hardly compete with the “technology drivers” because he could not afford to buy a smartphone.
That was not an unfamiliar image 3-5 years ago, when the wave of "platformization" hit, many people without smartphones were "pushed" out of the labor market.
The development of devices is closely linked to the development of generations of mobile technology. The government has a roadmap to turn off 2G and 3G waves to make way for new 4G and 5G telecommunications resources. But because of that, "brick" phones that are only used for calling and receiving will no longer work.
The problem for 10 million smartphones
Mr. Cao Anh Son - General Director of Viettel Telecom - shared that the transition from 2G to 4G is something that all network operators have to do with the same deadline, but Viettel faces more difficulties because there are many customers in remote areas, mountainous areas, and islands. Customers in this area account for 70% of the 2G phones on the market.
It is known that at the beginning of 2024, Viettel had nearly 10 million customers using 2G phones. Up to now, there are only less than 500,000 customers left. Viettel is expected to complete the conversion for this number of customers before October 15 - the time when 2G waves are turned off.
10 million conversion devices, equivalent to 10% of Vietnam's population in 2024. Viettel must convert an average of nearly 1 million devices/month, more than 30,000 devices/day. The huge workload creates a very challenging problem, especially when customers are residents in mountainous and island areas.
To do that, Viettel has imported millions of 4G devices to be ready to provide to customers. Among them are cheap 4G phones priced from only 390,000 - 490,000 VND/device (for voice and text messaging services).
Viettel has also “covered” the device conversion points in every village and commune. More than 10,000 free device conversion points are organized in remote areas. Customers are consulted enthusiastically without having to go to the 4G device purchase and sale points in more distant places.
In Ha Giang - one of the northern mountainous provinces with nearly 90% of the population being ethnic minorities, the shutdown of 2G waves according to regulations has made many people, the elderly, low-income people... worried about communication interruptions.
Understanding the psychology of the people, Viettel Ha Giang has proactively increased mobile sales schedules, focusing mainly on highland markets and communes with high 2G subscription rates. More specifically, Viettel's consultants are local people, speak the local language, and are ready to support at points of sale, serve and answer all questions for the people.
A series of promotional policies have been implemented to "stabilize prices" such as giving away data, giving away 4G voice services when switching, watching TV for free on the TV360 app, supporting the cost of buying 4G smartphones, issuing packages to support subscribers switching...
In particular, customers in difficult circumstances enjoy a free device exchange policy with a free 4G SIM card.
Being supported by Viettel with a 4G phone, 78-year-old Hoang Thi Nga (Na Dat village, Tan Nam commune, Quang Binh district, Ha Giang province) shared: "I live alone, life is difficult so I don't have money to buy a new phone. When I received the notice from the local government informing me that Viettel would give me a free phone to facilitate communication with relatives, I was very surprised and touched...".
Accelerate the conversion of the last 2G subscribers before the signal is turned off
From September 20 to October 25, Viettel "played big" when announcing free 4G phone conversion support for all remaining 2G phone customers, prioritizing deployment for 10 mountainous provinces in the Northwest region that are facing many difficulties due to the impact of storm Yagi, floods and natural disasters.
This is considered Viettel's most drastic action to date to convert the last customers using 2G devices to 4G devices. It is expected that about 700,000 customers will enjoy this incentive, equivalent to a budget of nearly 300 billion VND.
After 1 week of deployment, more than 200,000 devices were sent to customers, reducing the number of remaining 2G subscribers to nearly 500,000.
Following the roadmap of the Ministry of Information and Communications, Viettel has taken drastic measures to accelerate the conversion. In the final stage, in August alone, more than 3 million 2G devices were successfully converted to 4G.
Over the past year, Viettel has continued to expand its 4G coverage, installing more than 6,000 4G radio stations, bringing 4G coverage to over 96%. The goal is that by 2025, 4G coverage will reach over 98% of the population.
