In the days leading up to the Lunar New Year of Giap Thin 2024, along with the bustling atmosphere of people returning to their hometowns to celebrate Tet, network operators also witnessed a strong shift in mobile subscribers.

Sharing with VietNamNet, a representative of the MobiFone network said that from the full moon period of the twelfth lunar month to the Ong Cong Ong Tao festival, subscribers have shifted from big cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and provinces with many industrial parks to the provinces in the Central and Southwestern regions.

Specifically, the number of MobiFone subscribers moving out of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City is about 10%, Binh Duong about 13%. The number of MobiFone subscribers in the Central provinces increased about 13-14%. MobiFone subscribers in the Western provinces increased about 5-7%.

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Traffic participants rush on the morning of the 28th of Tet. Photo: Dinh Hieu

According to a representative of Vietnamobile, the reason why subscribers are moving from big cities like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang to the provinces is because students have had an early holiday, and there is a trend of going back to their hometowns and visiting relatives before Tet...

Vietnamobile's observations show that in the North, the number of subscribers is shifting from Hanoi to provinces such as Thai Binh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An. In the Central region, the provinces with the sharp increase in subscribers are Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh. In the South, Vietnamobile subscribers are flocking to some provinces such as Lam Dong, the Western provinces...

Vietnamobile representative also said that voice and data traffic before the Lunar New Year 2024 did not increase overall but only shifted from large cities to provinces.

According to a virtual network operator, from observations and experience over the years, this unit believes that the demand for telecommunications services tends to decrease slightly before Tet, then increase sharply during the Lunar New Year. Faced with the erratic fluctuations in telecommunications service consumption trends, during Tet as well as major holidays, network operators will have plans to avoid being surprised by situations.

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A network operator's technician checks and reinstalls the network.

From another perspective, Viettel representative said that according to the system, on February 5 (26th of Lunar New Year), voice traffic on Viettel's network increased by 9% compared to normal days, but decreased by 17% and 31% respectively compared to the same period in 2023 and 2022. Meanwhile, data traffic changed in the opposite direction, compared to the same period in 2023 and 2022, it increased by 10% and 45% respectively.

In the face of the strong shift in mobile subscribers, according to a representative of VNPT, in the process of preparing and strengthening the network for the Lunar New Year, VNPT pays special attention to the migration factor. This unit has a plan to supplement capacity in localities to welcome a large number of people returning home for Tet.

To ensure good service for mobile service users, network operators said they have carefully prepared their networks, ready to respond to any situation that may arise during the 2024 Lunar New Year.

One month before Tet, network operators such as Viettel, VNPT, MobiFone, and Vietnamobile have proactively re-planned their network infrastructure, reviewed to detect and fix potential risks.

At the same time, network operators said they have developed backup plans and increased transmission capacity to ensure network safety in all situations, best serving people's communication needs during the 2024 Lunar New Year holiday.

In fact, in the past few years, network congestion has not occurred. Telecommunications services are always in a state of continuous operation on New Year's Eve as well as the following days.

Network operators have completed plans to shut down 2G waves. Network operators Viettel, VNPT, and MobiFone are gradually converting 2G subscribers to 4G, in order to prepare well for shutting down 2G waves.