On December 12, the Military Industry - Telecommunications Group inaugurated the YBI0617 mobile broadcasting station in Hang A village, Ho Bon commune, Mu Cang Chai district.
Ms. Cu Thi Cu said she bought this phone nearly a month ago - right after seeing that the YBI0617 mobile broadcasting station was about to be put into use.
“Before, every time there was a market, we had to go to the commune center to use our phones. We downloaded videos to watch at home when we were bored. For the past week, we have been sitting at home but still able to contact relatives and friends. I like watching Tiktok, have set up Zalo and have Facebook,” said Ms. Cu Thi Cu.
Meanwhile, Mr. Vang A Lau, Party Secretary of Hang A village, was interested in surfing the internet to learn car driving theory online. Around him, some young people were also enthusiastically learning.
Mr. Vang A Lau said that before, he bought a theory book and had to carry it everywhere, which was inconvenient and even got torn. Now that he has a phone signal, he can study anytime, anywhere by just carrying his smartphone.
“In the past, whenever we needed to contact someone, we had to ride our motorbikes to the place. There were no forest roads or electricity, so traveling like that was extremely dangerous, not to mention taking too much time for big and small things.
But for the past week, just sitting at home, we can call each other. I can watch videos on Tiktok, contact via Zalo, download some legal documents for work. Especially, thanks to the signal, I can find some colleagues and acquaintances hundreds of kilometers away" - Mr. Lau said.
According to the Party Secretary of Hang A village, he studied driving theory online because he planned to buy a small truck to transport materials: "There is a road and a phone signal, I think I should borrow money to buy a car to sell construction materials to people in the village, hopefully life will change more" - Vang A Lau said.
According to Mr. Sung A Binh, Chairman of the People's Committee of Ho Bon Commune, this is a remote, isolated, and extremely disadvantaged commune. The village has 114 households and 618 people, of which 78 are poor and 4 are near-poor.
There is no national grid electricity and Viettel phone signal has only been available for a week. Therefore, people face many difficulties in daily life and accessing essential services and socio-economic development.
Putting the Hang A mobile broadcasting station into operation has important significance for the local socio-economic development, bringing benefits of information connection, Internet connection, helping people improve their awareness, access to information, trade and study, contributing to promoting socio-economic development, poverty reduction, and improving the quality of life here.
Wherever it is difficult, there is Viettel
Lieutenant Colonel Do Thanh Tuan - Director of Viettel Yen Bai said that the broadcasting station project in Hang A village has an investment of over 3 billion VND. The station operates independently, without needing grid electricity.
“From the district center to the construction site of the YBI0617 transmission station is about 40km of forest road, making travel difficult. To build this transmission station, Viettel had to use tractors or small trucks to transport materials and dump them about 1km from the construction site.
From there, people used motorbikes to carry materials back up the hill. From the foot of the hill, people continued to carry materials to the construction site of the transmission station. It took us 3 months to complete the construction of the station," said a leader of Viettel Yen Bai.
The mobile broadcasting station in Hang A village has been completed and put into operation, ensuring 2G and 4G connection for 114 households in Hang A village and neighboring villages, opening up opportunities for Internet access for people in mountainous areas who have difficulty connecting to trade, promoting local socio-economic development.
This is also Viettel's second mobile broadcasting station to bring mobile waves to especially disadvantaged villages and hamlets in Mu Cang Chai district after the mobile broadcasting station in Che Tao commune.
Currently, Viettel Yen Bai has a widespread network infrastructure, with a total of 642 locations including 1,654 cabinets, including: 343 2G cabinets; 642 4G cabinets, 27 5G cabinets. The transmission line has 1,344 routes with a length of 6,332 km. The fixed broadband network infrastructure has 187 stations, equivalent to nearly 116,000 ports, covering 100% of communes/wards and over 95% of villages.
With the spirit of serving the community over the past 2 years, Viettel has supported more than 7,500 smartphones for poor and near-poor households in the province, with a total amount of nearly 5 billion VND; switching from 2G to 4G subscribers with over 64,000 mobile subscribers.
