Earlier, both VinaPhone and Viettel had piloted a 4G service under the approval of the ministry.. — Photo VNA

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — The Ministry of Information and Communications will grant a 4G LTE licence in the second half of this year, Deputy Minister Phan Tam said at a meeting on Wednesday.

Earlier, both VinaPhone and Viettel had piloted a 4G service under the approval of the ministry.

The deputy minister asked the Viet Nam Telecommunications Authority (VNTA) to request enterprises to report the results of 4G testing and to establish guidelines for licensing documentation.

At a recent press conference, Deputy Minister Tam said the national programme on developing broadband by 2020 had focused on the construction of the 3G/4G mobile broadband infrastructure and was intended to serve 95 per cent of the population by 2020.

He said conditions to adopt 4G in Viet Nam came to fruition this year.

The ministry has prioritised the rollout of 4G in the country by establishing and protecting a healthy competitive market, boosting the development of content applications, and outlining policies on inter-sectorial public technology infrastructure usage.

Positive results

Also at the meeting, the three telecommunication giants, VNPT, Viettel and MobiFone, announced remarkable revenue and profit figures for the first quarter of this year.

According to a representative from Viettel, the network provider earned revenue of more than VND54 trillion (US$2.4 billion) in the first three months.

The group's pre-tax profit reached nearly VND9 trillion, while its contribution to the State budget was VND7 trillion.

Viettel has nearly 68 million mobile subscribers so far and nearly 890,000 TV subscriptions.

As for VNPT, in the first quarter, the group's profit increased 33.8 per cent over the same period last year.

VNPT's VinaPhone had 2.3 million new subscribers this year, while the number of fiber-optic Internet subscribers quadrupled compared to the same period last year.

The third largest network provider, MobiFone, also had a positive business result, as its revenue reached more than 23 per cent of its annual target, with a pre-tax profit of VND1.4 trillion.

At the meeting, VNPT and MobiFone said they planned to restructure in the near future.

VNPT said it would divest its funds in 50 companies, funds and banks, while MobiFone plans to continue promoting share sales of banks, expand its retail network and add television services to improve its business results. — VNS