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Smartphone maker VinSmart says it will launch its first 5G smartphone next July, and use its own 5G stations and equipment.
“We have built a lab for researching and developing 5G smartphones and other 5G telecom equipment,” Ngo Hoang Anh, head of the company’s embedded software department, said at a forum Wednesday.
The company is also partnering with U.S. tech giants Cisco and Intel to develop the 5G technology, Anh said. In June, VinSmart signed partnerships with Japan’s Fujitsu and the U.S.’s Qualcomm to develop its 5G smartphones.
VinSmart has requested the Ministry of Information and Communications for bandwidth to test its 5G stations next August, he added.
Tech expert Pham Hong Phuoc said that VinSmart developing 5G services is a rational move, as the local market is set to see more 5G smartphones this year and the next, and Vietnam aims to commercialize 5G next year.
VinSmart’s announcement follows similar moves by telecom giant Viettel, which begun testing 5G broadcasting in September, and its competitor VNPT, which has announced plans to do so.
No 5G smartphone has been manufactured or officially distributed in Vietnam so far, instead, they are hand-carried on overseas flights.
Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung said last year that Vietnam should be one of the first countries in the world to launch 5G.
5G is said to offer speeds 100 times faster than 4G, primarily used for smartphones and other similar devices. 5G is also expected to support new applications like remote medical procedures and autonomous driving.
