WiMAX trial success in Vietnam

FPT Telecom, a Vietnamese ISP, has trialled VoIP, video streaming and internet access services on the move using mobile WiMAX kit from NEC and Mitsibushi. According to local reports, WiMAX passed these tests with flying colours.  “The results opened many opportunities for us to develop and provide mobile telecommunications services,” FPT Telecom director Nguyen Dinh Hung, told local reporters. “Our goal is to integrate all services into a single broadband connection.”

The mobile WiMAX trials were conducted in the 2.3GHz frequency band, allowing a connection capacity of up to 15Mbps across a radius of 3km.

Last year, Vietnam’s Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) issued one-year licences to test mobile WiMAX services to four other Vietnamese telcos: EVN Telecom, Viettel, VTC and VDC.

It is not yet clear when WiMAX licences for commercial services will be awarded, but broadband penetration runs around five percent in Vietnam. Out of a population of about 85 million there were, according to figures from Informa Telecoms & Media, 1.89 broadband subscriptions as of the end of 2008.