On July 18, the People's Committee of Da Nang City announced that it had submitted a document to the City People's Council requesting the issuance of a Resolution regulating the policy of supporting the cost of purchasing smartphones for poor and near-poor households in the area.

It is expected that Da Nang will be the first locality in the country to turn off 2G waves. Phones using 2G waves (classic push-button phones that only make calls and send messages) will have to switch to using smartphones.

According to statistics, Da Nang has more than 3,800 households without smartphones.

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A push-button phone model that cannot be used after turning off 2G signal. Photo: Trong Dat

To meet people's need for information access and effective implementation of the policy, the People's Committee of Da Nang City has submitted a document to the City People's Council on supporting the cost of buying smartphones for poor and near-poor households in the area.

It is proposed to support a maximum of 2 million VND/device/household for each case of a poor household or near-poor household in the city where all members of the household do not have a smartphone. Each household is only supported a maximum of 1 time.

According to the roadmap to turn off 2G waves nationwide, by September 2024 in Da Nang, the 2G network will be turned off for 2G Only terminals (devices that only use 2G technology). Therefore, phones that only use 2G (classic push-button phones) will no longer be able to listen, call, or send messages.

Recently, the Department of Telecommunications (Ministry of Information and Communications) also sent an official dispatch to the Department of Information and Communications of Da Nang City to notify businesses of supporting households without smartphones in the city.

Accordingly, mobile telecommunications businesses will support Da Nang with a total of 2,010 smartphones. Therefore, the city plans to support 1,800 households that do not have smartphones to ensure communication.

According to the People's Committee of Da Nang City, Circular 14/2022/TT-BTTTT dated October 28, 2022 of the Ministry of Information and Communications stipulates the list and quality of public telecommunications services and guides the implementation of the Program for providing public telecommunications services until 2025. The beneficiaries of support are poor households and near-poor households according to the multidimensional poverty standards for the period 2021-2025 as prescribed in Decree 07/2021/ND-CP dated January 27, 2021 and the cash support level is 500,000 VND/household.

Therefore, to support poor and near-poor households according to city standards, it is necessary to issue a resolution of the City People's Council with specific local characteristics, with the maximum support level not exceeding 2 million VND.