4G Adoption in VietNam Less Robust than Expected

Higher adoption of 4G services by customers in Vietnam is hampered by expensive handsets, “good enough” 3G services and competition from Wi-Fi, according to Tran Manh Hung, VNPT chairman, and reported by VietNamNet.

VinaPhone, a subsidiary of VNPT, has gotten about 15 percent of the company’s subscribers, mainly in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, to try 4G services, so far.

In other locations, 83 percent of subscribers have 4G subscriber identity modules, but only 17 percent have shifted to using 4G services.

Hung expects 4G adoption to reach perhaps 15 percent to 20 percent of the subscriber base in the near term. By way of comparison, since the introduction of 3G services in 2009, adoption of 3G has grown to about 50 percent of the subscriber base.

Viettel has estimated that less than 10 percent of subscribers use 4G.