Lesson 1: Creating the foundation for digital transformation
According to the issued Digital Infrastructure Development Framework, Vietnam's digital infrastructure has 4 layers, including: Telecommunications and internet infrastructure; data infrastructure; digital physical infrastructure; digital utility infrastructure and digital technology . This development framework is an important step, clearly defining the components and requirements for digital infrastructure development, reflecting the evolution and expansion from traditional telecommunications infrastructure to new infrastructures according to our country's own approach.
Digital infrastructure plays a strategic and fundamental role, so it always goes first and needs to be invested in with a long-term vision. Digital infrastructure is constantly being invested in and expanded, and will become a solid foundation to ensure long-term breakthroughs in digital fields.
Mastering infrastructure technology
“Many experts and managers in countries with the world's leading telecommunications technology such as Finland and Sweden, when hearing about the rapid development of Vietnam's telecommunications and internet infrastructure in recent years, were extremely surprised and expressed their admiration,” Deputy Director of the National Digital Transformation Department ( Ministry of Information and Communications ) Ho Duc Thang could not hide his pride when sharing about Vietnam's digital infrastructure.
Not only has the coverage been wide, the quality of mobile and fixed broadband networks has also been significantly improved. Data from the i-Speed system (a “Make in Vietnam” product) developed by the Ministry of Information and Communications shows that the download speed of mobile broadband networks is currently about 42.11 Mbps, an increase of 0.53 Mbps (1.27%) compared to the beginning of 2024; the download speed of fixed broadband networks is 100.96 Mbps, an increase of 13.68 Mbps (15.67%).
Looking back 10 years ago (2014), our country had about 20 million smartphone users, equivalent to 22% of the population. Currently, the rate of people using smartphones has reached 84%, higher than the world average (63%), putting Vietnam in the top 10 countries with the highest number of smartphone users in the world. On October 15, the Vietnamese telecommunications industry continued to open a new page of development with the event of Viettel launching the 5G network, the most modern mobile telecommunications generation today. Right at the time of launch, 5G Viettel covered all local capitals nationwide with all radio equipment, transmission networks as well as 5G core networks used being self-produced by Viettel.
If the telecommunications system is the "foundation" of digital infrastructure, then digital infrastructure is the foundation of digital transformation, ensuring the development of the national digital economy and digital society. If we continue to depend on foreign telecommunications infrastructure, our country will never master the technology, and most importantly, it will be difficult to ensure network safety as well as information security and confidentiality. "Therefore, Viettel has determined to implement the "Make in Vietnam" strategy, self-researching and manufacturing telecommunications infrastructure equipment and digital infrastructure", shared Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Vu Ha, General Director of Viettel High Technology Industry Corporation (VHT).
In the early days, a series of difficulties and disadvantages hindered Viettel's aspiration to master telecommunications infrastructure technology, which seemed impossible to overcome. The Group's qualified human resources, knowledge base, specialized research equipment, etc. were almost zero. However, Viettel had the advantage of being an enterprise that both developed research and operated exploitation and business, which meant having a parallel system to test research. From that starting point, Viettel began to build a specialized apparatus for researching telecommunications equipment technology.
The Group advocates separating the telecommunications infrastructure system into small components for step-by-step research, starting with software, then hardware, and finally chipset production, thereby gradually mastering the entire large telecommunications system. Regarding 5G, in early 2024, Viettel launched the 5G DFE chip, the most complex component in the 5G ecosystem, controlling the operation of the signal receiving/transmitting block and high-speed communication with other 5G processing blocks.
Increase state resources
Last June, Viettel Group was awarded the Certificate of Conformity for 5G 8T8R and 32T32R base station equipment by the Ministry of Information and Communications. This is a 5G base station that plays an important role in the telecommunications network infrastructure, with VHT owning all hardware and software, the entire process from research, design to production. Currently, Viettel is capable of providing a complete set of solutions for the 5G network from the core network, transmission network and radio access network as 5G base stations. Since then, VHT has deployed more than 300 gNodeB 8T8R stations and deployed 10 gNodeB 32T32R stations in Ha Nam, Hanoi, Da Nang, Ninh Thuan, which are operating stably and smoothly.
“A 5G network system requires hundreds of thousands of billions of VND in investment capital. Therefore, when mastering infrastructure technology, we will first limit the flow of foreign currency abroad. However, we still determine that these are only the first steps, enough to affirm the correctness of the mission of mastering telecommunications infrastructure technology. We still have a lot of work to do, towards the goal of mastering the entire national digital infrastructure technology, keeping up with the constant development trend of the times,” emphasized Senior Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Vu Ha.
Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung said: Up to now, Vietnam's digital transformation has entered its 5th year. In an article commemorating the recent National Day, General Secretary To Lam emphasized: "We will definitely successfully carry out the digital transformation revolution, creating a breakthrough in developing productive forces and perfecting production relations". The biggest goal of digital transformation is to digitize the real world, so human creative space will increase at least twice, but the necessary condition is to have infrastructure and tools to do it, or support the implementation of those things.
Therefore, digital infrastructure is a strategic infrastructure that must be invested in one step ahead to serve national digital transformation, develop the digital economy and digital society; be in the top 50 leading countries in the world by 2030 and the top 30 by 2045, with super-large capacity, super-wide bandwidth, sustainable universality, green, smart, open and safe. The telecommunications sector is entering the second phase of innovation when telecommunications infrastructure is transformed into digital infrastructure. In recent years, Vietnam's telecommunications and telecommunications infrastructure have made great strides, gradually catching up with developed countries in the world, creating a solid foundation for the development of the digital economy and digital society.
However, telecommunications and internet infrastructure is only one of four components in the National Digital Infrastructure Framework. Other infrastructures, including data infrastructure, digital physical infrastructure, digital utility infrastructure and digital technology, including telecommunications infrastructure, still need to continue to invest in advance to create a foundation for digital transformation. But in reality, there are very few large digital infrastructure projects with public investment capital, or in other words, the State has never directly invested heavily in digital infrastructure, except for the National Data Center project that is being accelerated, striving to be completed by 2025 or a few small projects in localities.
“Many people mistakenly think that just leaving the development of digital infrastructure to telecommunications enterprises is enough,” commented Deputy Director Ho Duc Thang. Telecommunications is an essential need, so investing in telecommunications and developing telecommunications infrastructure is easy to recover capital. However, not all digital infrastructure investments are profitable. In cases where there is no direct and immediate economic effect, but it brings benefits to the long-term development of the country, the State still needs to directly invest.
This is an important basis for the Ministry of Information and Communications to issue or submit to competent authorities to issue policies to promote development and regulations on digital infrastructure management. This is also the basis for telecommunications and digital technology enterprises to identify new development spaces and develop development orientations for the 2024-2030 period. And from this point on, when the concepts and orientations for digital infrastructure development have been clearly defined, the State needs to really focus on investing more in digital infrastructure.
Minister Nguyen Manh Hung made a figurative comparison: The Government can be considered the largest consumer of a country. If the Government increases spending on digital transformation, it will stimulate digital transformation of the entire country. Currently, the Government is spending about 1% of the budget on digital transformation, which is below the world average. If the Government increases spending on digital transformation to 2-3% of the budget, it will be a big boost for digital transformation as well as digital infrastructure.
Nhandan.vn
Source: https://nhandan.vn/dot-pha-phat-trien-ha-tang-chien-luoc-post846921.html
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