Approved by the Prime Minister on January 11, 2024, the 'Information and Communications Infrastructure Planning for the 2021 - 2030 period, with a vision to 2050' clearly identified information and communications infrastructure as the infrastructure for national digital transformation, opening up new development space for the socio -economy, linking development in space with traditional physical development space, creating a favorable environment for innovation to enhance national competitiveness.

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In the digital infrastructure strategy, the Prime Minister pointed out that digital infrastructure is the foundation for Vietnam to become a modern, smart digital nation. Illustration photo: D.T.

Information and Communications Infrastructure Planning focuses on developing digital infrastructure. According to the 'Digital Infrastructure Strategy to 2025 and Vision to 2030', Vietnam's digital infrastructure has four main components: telecommunications and Internet infrastructure, data infrastructure, physical-digital infrastructure, digital utility infrastructure, and digital technology as a service.

As the infrastructure of the economy, Vietnam's digital infrastructure is required to have super-large capacity, super-wide bandwidth, universality, sustainability, greenness, intelligence, openness and security to meet the requirements of developing the digital economy, digital society, digital government, contributing to ensuring national defense and security.

In the October 2024 national digital transformation report released on November 5, the Ministry of Information and Communications said that currently, 6 localities including Ca Mau, Long An, Kon Tum, Dak Nong, Ben Tre and Lang Son have issued plans to implement the 'Information and Communications Infrastructure Planning for the period 2021 - 2030, with a vision to 2050' in the province.

Updating the development of digital infrastructure to serve national digital transformation, the Ministry of Information and Communications said that by October, the rate of mobile phone subscribers using smartphones reached 88.7%; the rate of households with broadband fiber optic Internet reached 82.3%.

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Vietnam has about 27 million households, currently 82.3% of households have broadband fiber optic Internet. Illustration photo: D.T.

Regarding coverage results for villages with low signal strength, by the end of September 2024, there were 761 villages with low mobile signal strength nationwide, of which 637 villages had electricity and 124 villages had no electricity.

Regarding the deployment of infrastructure to provide fixed broadband Internet access services, statistics from the Ministry of Information and Communications show that up to now, there are still 3,551 villages without fiber optic cables reaching the village.

Regarding the commercialization of 5G telecommunications services, this year, the Ministry of Information and Communications successfully organized an auction for the right to use radio frequencies for 5G deployment bands and licensed three enterprises, Viettel, VNPT and MobiFone, to deploy 5G commercially.

Since mid-October 2024, Viettel has been the first telecommunications enterprise to launch a 5G network, with 6,500 mobile information transmission and reception stations - BTS, covering 100% of the capitals of 63/63 provinces, cities, industrial parks, tourist areas, seaports, airports, hospitals, and universities.

In addition to the positive results achieved in the past time, the national digital transformation report in October 2024 also pointed out one of the limitations is that there are still 124 villages without grid electricity, or have electricity but the electricity is not enough to ensure the operation of BTS stations. Deploying generators to supply electricity to BTS stations will cause great costs for telecommunications businesses, while revenue cannot cover costs.

Along with that, some villages have difficult terrain, the cost of investing in power transmission, fiber optic cables and building BTS stations in these areas is expensive.

To overcome the above difficulties in developing digital infrastructure, the Ministry of Information and Communications proposes a key solution that relevant ministries and branches such as the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the State Capital Management Committee at Enterprises, Vietnam Electricity Group - EVN and localities coordinate and create infrastructure conditions for telecommunications enterprises to cover low-lying areas; bring fiber optic cables to villages, as well as meet the needs of households.

The 'Digital Infrastructure Strategy to 2025 and Vision to 2030' aims to universalize fiber optic cables to households by 2025; 100% of provinces, cities, high-tech zones, concentrated IT zones, research and development centers, innovation, industrial parks, stations, seaports, and international airports will have 5G mobile services... The goal by 2030 is that 100% of users will be able to access fiber optic cables at speeds of 1Gb/s or higher; 5G mobile broadband network will cover 99% of the population.
The Ministry of Information and Communications has issued a framework for Vietnam's digital infrastructure to promote development. The framework for Vietnam's digital infrastructure development is the 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.