Behind Viettel's "winning every battle" miracles

After the first 6 years of mainly undertaking antenna and TV tower construction - purely construction work for the company to generate revenue and maintain its staff, in 1995, Viettel faced a new opportunity when the Government allowed it to fully exploit telecommunications services. At that time, Viettel was the only domestic enterprise to be granted a license. However, the company did not have any related service business activities.

The turning point for the development path came 2 years later, when Viettel received a "historic" project - the North - South military fiber optic cable backbone project (1A) for the Information Command. Opportunities always come with challenges, and this time the challenge was extremely difficult: a young enterprise needed to solve and correctly solve a problem that even long-standing, more experienced enterprises had never done before. Specifically, in Vietnam at that time, there was only one fiber optic backbone of the post office with a speed of 34M/s. The 1A backbone had a total of 10 optical fibers along the 500 KV power line in the North - South direction: EVN received 4 fibers, but only used 2 active fibers, leaving 2 spare fibers, VNPT also received 4 fibers and used them with the same formula. Seizing the opportunity, the Ministry of National Defense and the Information Command actively lobbied and asked for 2 surplus optical fibers, handing them over to Viettel for deployment. However, not all optical fibers can be transmitted, because each optical fiber backbone needs an average of 4 fibers to receive and transmit effectively. Viettel only has half of them. Viettel has to "take a risk" with the technology of receiving and transmitting on 1 fiber, while the whole world has only the UK applying it for a line of about 200 km, and no country in Asia has deployed it.

“ At that time, Viettel's technology engineers were all in theory, no one had actually built any fiber optic backbone. Many foreign experts advised us: Don't do it yourself, hire someone to do it, just watch, ” recalled Major General Le Dang Dung, former Chairman and General Director of Viettel Group, who was directly involved in the project. But Viettel people did not give up so easily. The only way was to find a way to turn the impossible into possible. This enterprise worked with many foreign partners providing fiber optic technology to find a solution for a backbone with only 2 fibers, and convinced the Ministry of National Defense's Science Council to accept this technology. To prove it, Viettel people went all the way to England to work with service providers to configure it in the laboratory. The military project was a national secret, so Viettel had to design and redesign it, test it over and over again, countless times. Where there is no electricity, solar panels must be used, and where generators must be used are just two of the countless problems that need to be explored.

In 1999, Viettel completed the 1A fiber optic backbone. The moment the call from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi was smooth, the signal was clear, everyone was overwhelmed after many previous difficulties. Viettel became the first company in the world to successfully apply wavelength multiplexing technology on an optical fiber with a distance of more than 2,300 km. The first technological breakthrough in the telecommunications industry that Viettel was born from such dire circumstances. The 1A backbone was a historic event for Viettel, demonstrating the ability to conquer unprecedented things, and later that aspiration helped Viettel build the largest mobile network system in Vietnam, then become the only network operator in the world to produce telecommunications equipment, pioneering the world in 5G technology.

After having the 1A backbone, Viettel had another success thanks to providing the VoIP 178 long-distance calling service, helping to break the telecommunications monopoly that had lasted for a decade in Vietnam. And even when this service was still "doing well", bringing in huge revenue, Viettel's leaders determined that what was good would not last forever and set a higher goal: Viettel had to provide mobile services. Two decades ago, owning a mobile phone was considered a sign of wealth because the money spent to buy and maintain it was expensive, beyond the reach of the majority. Viettel's dream of "Every Vietnamese person having a mobile phone" sounded far from reality, because Viettel's difficulties at that time lay in both finance and technology. But like the previous lesson about 1A, about VoIP, Viettel people understood that in difficulty there is also opportunity. Financially, thanks to the downturn in international telecommunications, a partner agreed to let Viettel buy 5,000 broadcasting stations, with payment deferred over 4 years. Once the money issue was settled, Viettel quickly solved the technology problem and promptly went into business to recover capital.

If we follow the process sequentially as foreign experts designed, it will not only be costly but also take a long time to develop a network of 5,000 broadcasting stations, the market share will be delayed and that is almost synonymous with failure. In response to the call: " Speed ​​up, speed up more! Be creative, be more creative ", Viettel people clearly understand that to succeed, they need to find other breakthroughs. From there, Viettel has standardized the typical design, applied to different terrains such as the Mekong Delta, the Red River Delta, mountainous areas, islands... hundreds of stations in different locations, the standard is only 5-6 types. The frequency hopping principle and the initiative to draw stations in a mesh shape are applied, specifically every 800m place a station, wherever there are many subscribers, within a radius of 400m place a station. Mr. Hoang Anh Xuan (General Director of Viettel at that time) introduced the concept of "standardizing network design", including standardizing antenna mast design, sample book on Viettel BTS station installation standards. With the principle of grid design and frequency hopping, Viettel can plan and design a mobile network with up to thousands of stations in just 1 day instead of many years, saving money, mastering technology and ensuring quality. " Because we do it ourselves, we can be in control, stimulating national pride, so there are many initiatives and improvements in the process, there are thousands of improvements in the process of designing, constructing and exploiting the network " - said Mr. Hoang Anh Xuan, former General Director of Viettel Group. On October 15, 2004, Viettel officially launched its mobile network with the prefix 098. In less than a year, the number of subscribers reached 1 million - a growth rate that previous mobile networks took more than 10 years to achieve. In 12 months, it can be said that Viettel has created a stronger attraction and acceleration than its competitors.

Within 2 years, Viettel has owned a larger number of stations than all other carriers combined deployed in the previous 10 years, contributing to increasing the telephone density in Vietnam from 4% to 90% in 2007 and currently 130%. Mobile services, which were once a luxury, suddenly became essential, a service serving social life and the people. Behind that is Viettel's mastery, complete independence from design, operation, exploitation to research and application of the most unique technologies. Many reasons can explain Viettel's consecutive successes in the period of telecommunications popularization in Vietnam. But deep down, the core is still the quickness, always moving forward combined with the spirit of determination and creativity that has helped a late carrier to be able to get ahead in the race in both technology and business. As Mr. Do Trung Ta, former Minister of Posts and Telecommunications once said: “ Technology develops very quickly. It is very possible that what you think is a complete victory today, may not be a victory next year. This requires the vision of the leaders. I think flexibility and long-term vision are very important, and that is a victory of Viettel ”.

Throughout 35 years of development, many milestones have been completed, but Viettel's aspiration to conquer new heights and create new technological breakthroughs has never stopped. After popularizing mobile services, Viettel has become the number 1 network operator in Vietnam and many foreign markets. Viettel continues to aim for the more difficult task of mastering telecommunications equipment manufacturing technology and participating in high-value segments of the global technology supply chain. " Viettel has never rested on its laurels, Viettel people have never slept in the shadow of number 1. Each generation, each period, we create mountains for ourselves, and so we continue " - Chairman and General Director of Viettel Tao Duc Thang emphasized. With 4G infrastructure, Viettel has mastered the entire 4G telecommunications technology ecosystem on all 3 network layers (Core network, Transmission network, Access network) with virtualization technology platforms, distributed data storage technology... In 5G network infrastructure, Viettel also completely masters the devices in the 5G ecosystem including radio access devices, transmission devices, core network systems.

In the semiconductor field, Viettel's 5-year strategy for the period 2021-2025 sets the goal of researching and participating in the semiconductor chip field and striving to research and master the design of semiconductor chips by 2025. Currently, most chip companies in Vietnam are manufacturing according to available designs created by other companies, Viettel does not choose that path. Viettel produces 5G chips because the group's career is in telecommunications and information technology. Viettel also has a rare advantage when researching 5G chips, which is that it can test them right on its own network. “ It is a challenge, but it is very good because this is the future, and also an opportunity for Viettel as well as for Vietnam. Only when there is difficulty will there be opportunity. Finding a solution to the difficulty and mastering it will be possible to develop. In the future, Viettel will also research and participate in building a factory to cast chips, then there will be surrounding service systems. Viettel sets a goal of becoming a high-level chip design company in Asia by 2030 ” - Mr. Nguyen Dinh Chien, Deputy General Director - who directly directs, is in charge of and is responsible for the Group's scientific and technological activities, research - equipment production, intellectual property management and idea initiatives.

Currently, Viettel has upgraded its chip design research apparatus to be directly under the Group's management, and at the same time proposed directions and solutions for Viettel's participation in the semiconductor industry in two areas. One is chip design, focusing on developing chip lines based on Viettel's strengths such as chips for telecommunications (5G, 6G), dual-use chips (civil and defense and security). The other is chip manufacturing, ensuring compliance with the national semiconductor industry development strategy. Thanks to that, Vietnam enters the 5G era with its entire infrastructure system of equipment of its nationality. Even further, in 2023, Viettel's complete 5G Private system will be exported to India, the most technologically developed and populous country in the world. These events open up opportunities to change the telecommunications network infrastructure equipment manufacturing industry due to the ability to reduce costs and eliminate dependence on the monopoly of other equipment manufacturers in the world. From there, Viettel will advance to new levels in its journey of technological autonomy, go further in protecting national safety and security, creating the premise to accelerate research and conquer new products such as chips serving AI, IoT...

THU HANG (CONTENT), DIEC MAI (DESIGN)

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/dang-sau-nhung-ky-tich-danh-dau-thang-do-cua-viettel-ar878331.html