Vietnam’s Viettel aims to be complete with its nationwide 4G rollout by April 10 after a frenzy of base station installations over the past six months.
The military-run operator has deployed 36,000 4G base stations since commencing the rollout in November last year, Nhan Danreported. The company has completed the installation of 1,000 4G base stations per day.
At this pace, Viettel has been installing in one week as many base stations as it took a year to deploy during the operator’s 2G rollout.
Viettel now has a number of 4G base stations comparable to that of its 2G network and exceeding the number of 3G base stations. Its network spans all provinces and cities in the nation, covering around 99% of all districts.
According to the report, the pace of Viettel’s 4G rollout is considered unprecedented globally. As well as its base station footprint, Viettel has 320,000km of fiber domestically and around another 180,000km in overseas markets.
The report also states that Viettel has set a target of ensuring that by 2020 every Vietnamese citizen has a smartphone and access to the internet. To achieve this goal the company plans to offer 4G-capab le handsets for as little as 1 million dong ($43.90).