Mobile operators rush to upgrade infrastructure for Tet

In a bid to avoid the network congestion during the Lunar New Year, or Tet holiday, network operators are rushing to upgrade the infrastructure.

However, it’s still hard to avoid the internal network congestion, especially during the New Year’s Eve, said insiders who want to remain unnamed.

After over two months of launching, the military-run telecommunication firm, Viettel, finalized the installation and trial run for fully operation, ready to Tet holiday.

Particularly, Viettel invested in 12 more mobile switching centers (MSC), bringing the capacity to 56 million subscribers to meet 180 million calls per hour. Viettel’s SMS message center system was also invested to meet 460 million SMS messages per hour, increasing 50 percent against the existing capacity.

In addition, Viettel also installed 3,300 base transceiver stations (BTS) for 2G and 3G services and upgraded 42,000 stations.

Another giant, namely VinaPhone — a subsidiary of the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), also joined the race to upgrade and expand its network and infrastructure to serve its 50 million existing subscribers.

In details, VinaPhone has installed 22,000 base stations and nearly 10,000 BTS for 3G services with 3G coverage nationwide. Especially, in big cities such as Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, VinaPhone increased 3,000 stations for 3G service on this occasion.

VinaPhone has also arranged 30 mobile broadcast vehicle at the places where may cause congestion at the Eve such as Hoan Kiem Lake (Hanoi), District 1 (HCM City) and in the places of firework display.

Another VNPT’s affiliate, Mobifone, though not giving their work in details, say they will try their best in keeping the network connection smoothly before and after Tet.

VNPT holds 52.3 percent and Viettel holds 43 percent of the market share with 170 million mobile phone subscribers as of last year. – Tuoitre

Tags: Vietnam Telecom, Vietnam telecom maket