Experts of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) have affirmed that the television digitalization is inevitable, which means it will come sooner or later in different countries, because with the rapid development of technologies, there will be no spare equipment for replacement in the next five years.
In Vietnam, the stoppage of analog TV broadcasting has been scheduled to begin in 2015 for big cities. If Vietnam actually begins the television digitalization in 2015 as scheduled, there will be redundant 700MHz frequency band which is considered very valuable waveband and can be used for 4G LTE services.
According to Viettel, the Military Telecom Company in the mobile service sector, in every three years, there appears new technologies which have the transmission rate increasing by six times, while the demand for bandwidth increases by 23 times. As such, mobile service providers have to increase the speed, while the demand for bandwidth increases when new technologies are applied.
When Vietnam kicks off the television digitalization, 700 MHz waveband will become redundant. Meanwhile, the waveband can be used well for broadband mobile services which can lead to better wave coverage in rural areas and allow to lower investment rates. Therefore, mobile service providers, if using the waveband, will have more opportunities to reduce the services to be provided to rural areas.
According to Viettel, if it has 700 MHz waveband, it will need only 70 base transceiver stations (BTS) to cover 4G LTE services in Hanoi. Meanwhile, if using 2.6GHz, it will need 130 BTS.
Also according to the telecom service provider, if providing broadband services over fiber optic cable or copper cable to a district in Nam Dinh province with 52,000 people, the average cost would be 120 dollars per household. If providing broadband 4G LTE services with 2.6GHz, the cost would be 12 dollars per household.
However, if using 700MHz waveband, the cost would be surprisingly low at 2.5 dollars per household. Besides, 4G LTE equipments also fit 700MHz.
Statistics show that the mobile service sector can create the turnover which is four times higher than the turnover from television services. Regarding the impacts of the broadband services to the GDP, if the number of mobile phone subscribers increases by 10 percent, this will contribute to the one percent increase in GDP. Meanwhile, if the number of broadband Internet subscribers increases by 10 percent, this will help increase 1.5 percent of GDP. As such, it is clear that broadband always plays a very important role in the nation’s development.
With the analysis, Viettel has proposed the Ministry of Information and Communication to reserve 700 MHz waveband for 4G services for three reasons: 1) the investment costs are low; 2) the good coverage; 3) equipment is ready for the waveband.
Not only Viettel, some other mobile service providers are also “eyeing” the waveband to become redundant. Under the currently applied Telecommunication Law, the waveband allocation will be carried through bidding. As such, the Government will be able to collect money from putting waveband into bids.
In related news, to date, seven Vietnamese enterprises have got the licenses to develop LTE, the pre-4G technology, in the trial basis, including the Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group (VNPT), Viettel, FPT Telecom, CMC, VTC, EVN Telecom and Gtel.
However, to date, only Viettel, VNPT and FPT have released announcements the experiments. Viettel has announced that it has mastered the technology, while the commercialization of the technology will be carried out no sooner than 2015.
To date, about 20 mobile networks in the world have commercialized the technology.
Source: Vietnamnet |