35 years of Viettel and Vietnam's miracles in the world's telecommunications and technology market

From a country that was behind in telecommunications 20 years ago, with one of the lowest mobile usage rates in the world, Vietnam has become a telecommunications exporter and one of the few to master the entire 5G technology process.

In the context of Vietnam more than 20 years ago, when 1 minute of calling meant "buying 2 bowls of pho" and only 4% of the population used mobile phones, it was hard to imagine that the S-shaped country would become one of the few countries to master and export 5G and have the second largest telecommunications brand in the world.

“The prestige of Viettel and the Vietnamese people is increasing. International friends who understand us will understand us even better, the Vietnamese people, Vietnamese culture, and Vietnamese values. Especially, Viettel is a state-owned enterprise and, more specifically, an enterprise of the army, the army of the heroic Vietnamese people, heroic in combat and now heroic in economic business,” General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong said during a visit to a Viettel market in 2017.

Viettel ranks second in the world in terms of brand strength in the telecommunications sector. Viettel's Brand Strength Index is 89.4/100, with a rating of AAA - the highest rating.

Viettel not only created a telecommunications boom in Vietnam, but also brought mobile waves and digital services to serve people in many countries, even in unstable and difficult circumstances. Viettel even succeeded in countries where even the largest telecommunications companies had to withdraw. In 7/10 investment markets, Viettel ranked first. That is no longer just "luck", because luck does not come many times. The miracle that Viettel has achieved in foreign markets is a testament to the strategy, determination, and creativity of many generations.

“ Viettel’s strategy is to be in the top 10 largest telecommunications operators in the world. Without investing abroad, the Vietnamese market is not enough, Viettel cannot be in the top 10 largest telecommunications operators in the world ” – Lieutenant General Hoang Anh Xuan Nguyen, General Director of Viettel Group, recalled.

At the end of 2006, Viettel officially “set foot” in the Cambodian market, becoming the first telecommunications company to directly invest abroad. At that time, the domestic market share was still immense, and in fact, it was still an attractive piece of cake for international investment. Viettel still had to shoulder the burden of late payment for 5,000 broadcasting stations.

Lieutenant General Hoang Anh Xuan shares smiles with Cambodian students at the first school in the capital Phnom Penh to receive free Internet from Metfone (Viettel Cambodia).

While the technical team is qualified, the telecommunications business experience is only in the learning stage. A series of obstacles have been raised, proving the risk of the decision to go to the big sea. But Viettel's determination is to do it.

“Cambodia was also very competitive at that time, it was very fierce. Because at that time, when we went to Cambodia, first of all, they did not give any incentives to any business, any business, we were a foreign investor, 7-8 businesses right there” – Major General Hoang Son, former Party Secretary, Deputy General Director of Viettel Group, remembers the reason why Viettel chose Cambodia as its first market.

Cambodia is a country with a large area, sparse population and low population density, making it difficult not only for telecommunications, but also for many other fields such as electricity and water to develop infrastructure in remote areas. In danger there is opportunity. Realizing the weakness of most telecommunications networks in Cambodia at that time was that they did not have their own infrastructure. Therefore, Viettel determined to build and own its own telecommunications infrastructure.

Overcoming unprecedented challenges to transport the first 10 experimental transmission stations from Vietnam, Viettel worked day and night to rapidly build thousands of stations by combining domestic combat experience and flexible adaptation to the host country's environment.

Therefore, on the official launch day more than 1 year later, February 9, 2009, Metfone - Viettel's international brand in Cambodia immediately became the largest telecommunications infrastructure provider. 2 years later, Metfone rose from 8th place to number 1 with 46% mobile market share, 60% fixed broadband market share.

Bakneom is a farming village about an hour’s drive from the center of Oddar Meanchey, a province on the Cambodian-Thai border, but it is one of the localities that has difficulty connecting to the national grid or water supply network. Because, with a sparse population of only about 300,000 residents in an area of ​​over 6,000 square kilometers, infrastructure businesses are almost impossible to make a profit. Yet, Bakneom has mobile phone signal!

“Apart from Metfone, no other network operator has thought of providing coverage in this area or remote areas in the province,” said Oddar Meanchey, director of Metfone’s branch (Viettel’s brand in Cambodia).

Unlike its international competitors, Metfone is willing to “go first”, bringing telecommunications signals to the most remote areas. “Metfone has expanded its coverage to remote areas, even in places where they know they will not make any profit. This makes us feel warm, especially for the army units in the border and remote areas,” said General Samdech Pichey Sena Tea Banh, former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense of Cambodia.

In Burundi, Viettel not only became the network operator with the largest market share (Lumitel) in the fastest time (6 months), but also owned the e-wallet with the most users.

Among the countries where Viettel rose to No. 1 in telecommunications market share the fastest, Burundi (Africa) is the country that created a miracle in just 6 months. In this country, Viettel still prioritizes the strategy of popularizing mobile services by bringing telecommunications to the entire country and its people. However, the factor that helped Lumitel (Viettel's brand in Burundi) make a leap forward comes from the incident in the African country.

In May 2015, when the political turmoil broke out, other networks stopped operating and foreign personnel left Burundi, causing communication to be disrupted. Meanwhile, Viettel people here knew how to control the situation and still maintain the operation of the mobile network: customers flocked to use Lumitel, bringing this network to the number 1 position in a very short time.

However, what makes Viettel so different in Burundi is not only the popularization of telecommunications and the rise to the number one position in the super-fast market share. It is the fact that this network operator participates in many social activities, supporting the disadvantaged in Burundi, of which the use of Lumicash e-wallet to financially support hundreds of thousands of refugees returning home is a typical example.

Lumitel has used its network and human resources to support the United Nations in implementing humanitarian financial operations for more than 168,000 refugees, with more than 21 million USD transferred to the right people, safely. Ms. Brigitte Mukanga Eno - Chief Representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Burundi said: "Without Lumitel and Lumicash's activities, refugee support activities would face countless difficulties."

In addition to its achievements in telecommunications growth and popularization in developing countries, Viettel also created a miracle in a country with a much higher level of development and GDP than Vietnam: Peru. Here, Viettel won the bid for a telecommunications license because of its commitment to provide free Internet to more than 4,000 schools - something that no other telecommunications company was willing to do. When it launched in 2014, Bitel (Viettel brand here) was the only mobile network with 3G coverage nationwide.

Viettel brings mobile waves to the end of the Amazon River basin, where there is no electricity grid.

Even in a country like Peru, Viettel continues to carry out its mission: serving people in even the harshest regions. That is Cerro de Pasco, a city located at an altitude of 4,380m, one of the highest cities in the world, covered in snow all year round.

The first and almost only feeling of most people when arriving in Pasco is “Can’t breathe”. This is also the poorest and most difficult area in Peru and the people have never known how to use a phone or the Internet. However, the appearance of Bitel has changed everything.

In addition, in February 2021, despite the complicated developments of the Covid-19 pandemic, Bitel completed the installation of 4 transmission stations at the end of the Amazon River basin, bringing mobile waves and the Internet to the deepest areas here. These are the last stations in the project of the deepest and most remote transmission station in the Amazon River basin in Peru. Crossing the jungle and the Amazon River to pull fiber optic cables and provide mobile coverage in places without electricity in the Amazon River basin can be considered unimaginable for all network operators in Peru - except Bitel.

“Give first, receive later” is the guiding principle for Viettel to build a sustainable investment strategy, balancing the interests of the enterprise with the interests of the government and people of the host country. This is what helps Viettel’s brands abroad always be highly appreciated, and is even an important factor helping many subsidiaries rise to the number 1 position in market share in an unimaginable time.

Resolute against competitors and humane in customer approach strategy, after 15 years since opening the first foreign market, Viettel has become a professional international investor, ranking number 1 in 7/10 international markets.

Revenue from foreign investment activities reached more than 3 billion USD, maintaining a high growth rate for 7 consecutive years, 5 times higher than the world industry average, bringing in annual foreign currency revenue transferred to Vietnam of up to 500 million USD.

The numbers speak volumes about business efficiency, but also show an aspiration, a consistent philosophy of Viettel when investing internationally: Affirming Vietnamese technological capacity.

In March 2024, Viettel surprised everyone at the world's largest mobile technology event when it introduced its 5G device ecosystem at MWC (Mobile World Congress) in Spain. Accordingly, the Vietnamese technology group introduced a 5G wireless network device ecosystem based on the Open-RAN standard, a 5G core network, and a 5G chip entirely owned by Viettel.

Commenting on this event, Mr. Dan Rodriguez - General Director of Network Platform Group at Intel, said: "Viettel has achieved great achievements, truly breakthrough technologies in both the use of Open-RAN and 5G SA core".

At MWC 2023, Viettel surprised everyone by introducing a 5G wireless network equipment ecosystem based on the Open-RAN standard, a 5G core network, and a 5G chip that they completely own.

Before that, few people could believe that the Vietnamese network operator – originally a construction company – could successfully produce 5G equipment, even 5G chips. This is something that only a few of the world’s largest technology corporations can do, and no other telecommunications operator besides Viettel has successfully produced.

Before demonstrating the 5G network broadcasting independently at MWC, Viettel conducted measurements for 300 5G stations officially operating on the network in Vietnam (Hanoi, Ha Nam, Da Nang, Ninh Thuan). The results showed that the 5G equipment manufactured by Viettel fully met the technical specifications according to world standards and Vietnamese standards. Furthermore, in December 2023, Viettel's complete 5G Private system was exported to India, the most technologically developed and populous country in the world.

In addition to successfully researching and manufacturing hardware devices, mastering the real-time billing system (OCS), the “heart of the network”, is another feat of Viettel. Before 5G devices, this was a feat that surprised international partners when Viettel was the only telecommunications operator to develop its own OCS system.

This group not only successfully researched and developed vOCS 3.0 but also became the Top 3 OCS manufacturers globally in terms of capacity and features. In particular, vOCS also did something that no other real-time billing system in the world could do: design a separate package for each customer.

Viettel aims to become a highly qualified chip design company in Asia by 2030 and become an important nucleus in the development of the semiconductor industry in Vietnam.

“Viettel’s development path has gone from working for hire, to investing in telecommunications services, to high-tech industry and the next step is to do technology, be present in all stages of the semiconductor industry and be a pioneer in the Vietnamese electronics industry. If a country does not have an electronics industry, it cannot develop, and Viettel’s mission is to be a key enterprise, making important contributions to Vietnam becoming a developed country,” said Mr. Nguyen Manh Hung, Minister of Information and Communications, who has held leadership positions at Viettel since its early days.

5G network equipment and chips are just the beginning. Viettel aims to become a highly qualified chip design company in Asia by 2030 and become an important nucleus in developing the semiconductor industry in Vietnam.

“Viettel continues to be steadfast in its noble aspirations that have been passed down from generation to generation: to always innovate for the people, to continuously popularize so that when technology advances, no one is left behind, to be a pioneer and the main force in creating a digital society, and to resonate to create value together,” said Major General Tao Duc Thang, Chairman and General Director of Viettel. The spirit of self-reliance and daring to take on the most difficult tasks to overcome has helped Viettel establish many miracles in the past and will continue to be a provision in the next journey and create new miracles./.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/batdongsan/35-nam-viettel-va-nhung-ky-tich-cua-viet-namtren-thi-truong-vien-thong-cong-nghe-the-gioi-d217341.html