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2G and 3G phones completely banned in Vietnam
A recent report suggests that Vietnam is going to completely forbid the 2G and 3G devices in the country. The news from Vietnamnet notifies that the governors are imposing a ban on importing and producing the 2G and 3G equipment.
On the other hand, about 2.1 million improvised families will receive smartphones during 2021 – 2025. By this time, the 4G network technology will take over the old gen network business.
Whole Story: No more 2G and 3G devices
Early in July this year, the Vietnam Ministry of Information and Communication proposed a bill to promote the 4G network or further. That’s why all network equipment needs to support the 4G wireless technology. No matter what, whether they are manufactured in the country or imported from outside of the country.
This new bill results in an estimated drop of 70% in the 2G network headsets. The famous network operators in the country are greatly affected by this decision. The top four vendors of the company namely include
- HMD Global
- Itel Mobile
- MasstelCommunications
- Mobell Communications
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Among them, Itel faces the most damage and might lose 70% of projects in the market. Furthermore, the company revealed that in the future its 4G feature mobiles will cost VDN700,000 (around 30 USD) while its 2G headset only costs VDN500,000 (about 21.8 USD).
Besides, the IT Ministry isn’t planning to review this replacement plan of 3G and 4G devices. At present, the consumer can use the 2G and 3G devices but after September 2024 they won’t support the network.
Still using old network:
According to GFK, over 20 million mobile phones are sold in Vietnam each year, 60 percent of which are smartphones, and 40 percent, or 8 million products, are feature phones.
Once Circular 43 takes effect, it will have an impact on feature phones that only support 2G and 3G, thus increasing the need to switch into 4G and 5G.
As for the operational 25.6 million subscribers using 2G/3G phones, the devices will step by step leave the networks (the average life cycle is 3 years), once there is no more supply.
According to the Authority of Telecommunications (AoT), the policy on supporting poor and near-poor households to access 4G/5G technologies has been set in the draft public utility telecommunications program in 2021-2025. Under the program, the Government will give support for 2.1 million smartphones to poor and near-poor households nationwide.
(Via- DigiTimes)
