Vietnam Telecom Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2023-2028)

The Vietnamese telecom market is expected to register a CAGR of 1.21% over the next five years. Most major telecom companies, such as Vietnamobile, Viettel, EVNTelecom, and AT&T, are based in Vietnam and promote innovation by making significant R&D investments consistently.

Key Highlights

• The growing demand for high-speed connectivity services by customers and increasing spending on the deployment of 5G infrastructure positively influence the growth of the Vietnam telecom market. For instance, Samsung Electronics collaborated with Viettel to start 5G commercial trials in Da Nang, Vietnam. Through this partnership, high-performance and advanced 5G services can be offered to customers.
• The growth in the telecom industry is mainly due to the increasing population with the rising adoption of mobile phones that support 3G, 4G, and 5G services across the country. For instance, Infinera selected the Viettel Optical Timing Channel 2.0 (OTC2.0) solution to prepare the Vietnamese operator’s synchronization network for a 5G pilot rollout.
• 5G services still need to be fully deployed in Vietnam, but key telecom operators have completed 5G demonstrations and trials over the past two years. For instance, MobiFone rolled out its 5G network trial in Hue.
• The government plans to upgrade its 3G and 4G networks to 5G. As part of its National Digital Transformation Programme, the government plans to develop a network infrastructure that provides high-speed connectivity services for customers. For instance, the Minister of Information and Communications (MIC) intends to focus on developing 6G wireless communications technologies.
• Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a large portion of the Vietnamese population has been forced to spend almost constantly at home. Many people opt to work from home, and due to that, there is increased broadband consumption. Offering high-speed broadband services will further support the growth of the telecom market.

Vietnam Telecom Market Trends

Growing demand for Wireless Services

• The increasing population, communication services, and rising adoption of smartphone services have driven the growth of the Vietnamese Telecom Market. The growth would be further supported by regulatory authorities, which play a significant role in adopting a 5G network in the country.
• The government has forward-looking plans to expand its network coverage from 3G and 4G to 5G networks. For instance, the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) reported that it finished installing 5G stations using open radio access network (ORAN) technology with download and upload speeds of 900 Mbps and 60 Mbps.
• The Vietnamese government has plans to issue 5G wireless services licenses by the end of this year. Further, this year, the Department of Telecommunications will strengthen management and monitor the implementation of licenses granted to businesses. At the same time, inspect the implementation of regulations in the telecommunications sector and develop a set of 5G licensing standards. The demand for deploying Wi-Fi solutions will significantly grow, creating new opportunities for the telecom market.
• According to the Ookla Speedtest Global Index, Vietnam ranked 47th with a median fixed broadband download speed of 78.87 Mbps in October 2022. Smartphone penetration is growing significantly and thus increasing the demand for high-speed wireless services.
• Government authorities are working with private telecom service providers to expand wireless broadband connections. For instance, as part of its National Digital Transformation Programme, the government aims to enable faster and higher-quality wireless internet services for consumers.

Growing demad for OTT Services

• According to the GroupM Vietnam report, YouTube was the leading OTT streaming service in rural areas in Vietnam at 46 %. Meanwhile, the local platform FPT Play was the second most-used service, with 27% of the respondents using this OTT service. This indicates that Pay-TV services revenue is likely to drop in the next five years because of a steady decline in DTH subscriptions and emerging competition from OTT service providers.
• A rising number of mobile subscribers will significantly increase the demand for OTT (over-the-top) services. For instance, DatVietVAC launches its new streaming service VieON (video-on-demand and television service), in Vietnam.
• International OTT platforms, such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, offer on-demand video services for customers, thus creating new growth opportunities for the Vietnam OTT services market.
• According to the Ookla Speedtest Global Index, Vietnam ranked 53rd with a median mobile download speed of 39.48 Mbps in October this year. Customers are migrating to mobile-based OTT services, thus creating new growth opportunities for the telecom market.
• According to GSMA, Mobile internet use in the country nearly doubled from 27% of the population in 2014 to 53% in the last year. Adults in the country are increasingly using mobile internet. The increasing internet penetration will further increase the demand for OTT services.
• During the COVID-19 outbreak, people adopted work-from-home practices and spent more time watching videos, games, and other forms of entertainment at home. OTT service providers offering on-demand videos are anticipated to further drive the growth of the Vietnamese telecom market.

Vietnam Telecom Market Competitor Analysis

The Vietnamese Telecom Market is moderately fragmented due to ongoing partnerships and recent advancements. Some major market players studied were Vietnamobile, Viettel, EVNTelecom, AT&T, and MobiFone.

In May 2022, the Viettel Group collaborated with Qualcomm Technologies to develop a 5G Radio Unit (RU) with massive MIMO capabilities and distributed units (DUs) to deploy the next-generation 5G network infrastructure development and services in Vietnam.

In March 2022, Kerlink partnered with VIoT Group to roll out a nationwide LoRaWAN IoT (low-power vast area network) in Vietnam. 350 Kerlink gateways were planned to be deployed by the end of May in six cities, and 1,400 additional gateways were expected to be deployed by the end of 2022.

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