Vietnam’s military-run telecoms operator Viettel is set to launch testing of Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology in parts of Hanoi and HCM City. According to Vietnam Business News, which cites a report by Vietbiz24, around 240 customers in the two cities will soon be able to trial the 4G service until the end of August. Viettel’s director, Hoang Son, said the trials will help the company assess the network’s capabilities, although he did not mention when an official launch of LTE would take place. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, Viettel received its licence to trial LTE technology in September 2010 from the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), alongside four other companies, namely Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications (VNPT), CMC Telecom and Vietnam Multimedia Corporation (VTC).
In a separate but related story, VNeconomy has reported that Viettel has increased coverage of its 3G network in the southwest of the country. The operator has installed a further 1,100 3G base transceiver station (BTS) in 13 provinces and cities in the region, bringing the total number of its 2G and 3G cell sites in the southwest to 7,100.