Ericsson puts Nokia in its place with Vietnam 5G announcement

"Viettel, has strengthened its long-term partnership with Ericsson through the award of the majority of its nationwide 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) deployment," the Swedish vendor stated. "Starting immediately, Ericsson 5G products and services will be deployed across the majority of provinces in Vietnam."

On one level, this is simply a 5G rollout announcement; Ericsson doing what all vendors do and talking up a decent contract win. But on another, this is a poke at arch-rival Nokia, which last week also announced a 5G contract with the same Vietnamese operator.

Nokia said it had signed a "major new deal with Viettel," that would bring 5G to Vietnam for the first time. It described an ambitious project covering 22 provinces and the supply of kit from its AirScale RAN portfolio to cover 2,500 sites.

Clearly that announcement irked Ericsson, which seems to have secured a bigger share of the deal than Nokia. Ericsson did not share such detailed specifics as Nokia; its equipment will be rolled out "across the majority of provinces in Vietnam," it said. But the implication is that this is a bigger deal.

Furthermore, it's worth pointing out that the 2,500 sites figure has since disappeared from Nokia's press announcement. Read into that what you will.

For its part, Ericsson said its 5G deployment for Viettel will include the Vietnamese capital Hanoi and the north and central parts of the country when complete. It did not put a timeframe on that though.

The deal is part of an extended partnership with Viettel that will also see Ericsson modernise the telco's 4G network in the same areas of the country.

Viettel is pretty keen to encourage its customers up the mobile generations. So much so that it is providing free 4G phones to users to move them off its 2G network. Local news outlet VnExpress reported earlier this month that the telco has unveiled plans to spend 300 billion dong, or just over US$12 million, to gift 4G phones to 700,000 customers who still use 2G devices.

We're not talking high-end smartphones here: these are feature phones with some added capabilities that will allow the use of certain apps. And the programme comes as something of a necessity, with Viettel aiming to shut down its 2G as soon as mid-October. But it also underscores how keen the operator is to push more advanced mobile technology in Vietnam.

Indeed, Ericsson noted that Viettel is preparing to refarm spectrum for new radio, using its 2.6 GHz holdings for 4G and 5G, as well as for a future 5G standalone deployment, highlighting the potential that will bring for new services.

Ericsson and Viettel have also inked an MoU to promote 5G adoption in Vietnam. They will work together on 5G use cases, they said, namechecking network slicing, and on furthering the developer ecosystem in the country.

"This year marks a significant milestone year for Vietnam with the commercial deployment of 5G," said Viettel CEO Tao Duc Thang. "5G will deliver superior user experience and enable new enterprise features that will unleash the capabilities of Industry 4.0 and enable the digital transformation of Vietnam," he said.

"Together, we will explore new frontiers in 5G, including network slicing, enterprise applications, and the expansion of Industry 4.0 use cases," added Rita Mokbel, Head of Ericsson Vietnam. "The selection of Ericsson as a strategic partner for 5G deployment by Viettel reaffirms the deep partnership between the two companies for providing a robust, reliable and efficient digital infrastructure in Vietnam."

Nokia said much the same.