Accelerating Vietnam’s journey towards 5G
5G remains on track to become the fastest-adopted mobile generation: 5G mobile subscriptions are forecast to have topped 1.6 billion at the end of 2023, and 5.3 billion by 2030. However, we are still early in the 5G cycle and only 28 per cent of 4G sites globally have been upgraded to 5G mid-band. Likewise, only 1.6b 5G subscribers, out of a total of 8.5b mobile subscriptions, enjoy the benefits of 5G.
Following the spectrum auctions, Vietnam is well poised to commercially expand 5G this year and derive the benefits of the latest, most advanced 5G products and solutions, as well as leveraging the valuable knowledge and experiences from the 5G deployment across other markets in the world. 5G will enable Vietnam to unlock the potential of Industry 4.0 and will be the foundation on which Vietnam can further build on its digital transformation journey and realise the government’s vision.
A key component of Vietnam’s development strategy is the digital economy, which will contribute 20 per cent of GDP by 2025 and 30 per cent by 2030. 5G will provide the critical infrastructure that will drive the digital transformation in Vietnam. Ericsson fully supports and endorses this vision, and we are committed to helping Vietnam achieve this important and strategic ambition.
Today, more than 200 5G networks are in commercial service and Ericsson leads the market, supporting 158 5G live networks across five continents and 67 countries. In Vietnam, we have been supporting mobile service providers with commercial 5G pilots since 2020 and are proactively working with mobile service providers to ensure that Vietnam is at the forefront of 5G developments.
As a long term and trusted strategic partner to Vietnam, we will continue to share global 5G experience with customers in Vietnam, helping ensure successful coverage and capacity deployments with resilient network performance, scalability, simplicity, and security as a primary focus.
Ericsson’s 5G portfolio can significantly lower cost and energy per delivered gigabyte. We can today modernise 4G sites with 5G achieving 10 times improved capacity and around one-third of savings in energy consumption. In addition, around half of 5G traffic outside of
China runs on our networks.
We have the right 5G portfolio in place to enable our customers to deploy 5G SA and NSA networks in all main frequency bands for global deployments. The Ericsson Radio System hardware has been 5G-ready since 2015. It can also be used for 5G New Radio, including standalone, with a remote software installation.
We have also shipped 10 million 5G-ready hardware radios to our customers since 2015, which gives us and our customers a unique advantage. This is currently the most installed 5G-ready radio in the industry.
5G will pave the way for increased investments in smart manufacturing capabilities in Vietnam, supporting the government’s vision and focusing on driving an increased and sustainable annual productivity growth rate of 7 per cent by 2025. As a long-standing partner, Ericsson will leverage its technology leadership and expansive 4G installed base – which can seamlessly and efficiently be upgraded to 5G.
We are also proactively working with mobile service providers to ensure Vietnam is at the forefront of 5G developments, sharing the technical capabilities as well as global, regional, and local market insights.
The growth of the 5G ecosystem will go a long way towards accelerating the 5G and Industry 4.0 adoption by enterprises in Vietnam. The industry, academia, and government collaboration will serve to build up innovative 5G use cases that are relevant for Vietnam.
For example, together with RMIT University in Vietnam, Ericsson is already today delivering training in 5G, the Internet of Things, AI, automation, AR/VR, edge computing, and blockchain to RMIT’s engineering, science, and technology students.
5G commercialisation will benefit enterprises looking to invest in modernising their legacy systems by utilising new technologies and applications which will drive innovations, operational efficiencies, and growth. The initial use-case of private 5G networks will be around gaining operational flexibility, efficiencies, and reliability, helping further improve Vietnam’s labour productivity growth rates towards the government’s target of 7.5 per cent per annum by 2030.
Vietnam has a strong strategic focus on digital transformation across society, the economy, and government. This triple pillar approach is visionary and has our full support.
Ericsson’s latest radio portfolio additions that were announced during the Mobile World Congress 2024 consist of 12 new radio, software, transport, and antenna solutions bringing more performance, more sustainability, more openness, and more automation. The new portfolio enlarges the already widest range of radios prepared for Open RAN. It includes products capable of up to 4x uplink capacity, up to 25 per cent energy savings, and with up to 49 per cent reduced embodied carbon.
The hardware is ready for 5G Advanced, and Ericsson RedCap is our first software product. 5G Advanced is an important step towards high-performing programmable networks with enhanced performance, new services, and automation capabilities. We have set the ambition to be net-zero across our value chain by 2040 and our new latest portfolio supports the milestones set for 2025 to reduce 36 per cent the emissions from our supply chain, and to reduce the energy consumption by 40 per cent measured for a typical new site.
Ericsson remains at the forefront of technology by creating the best network products in terms of performance, sustainability, and openness on the way to maximising the innovation potential of 5G and beyond.n