Despite being a developing country, 3G in Vietnam has equivalent telecom infrastructure compared with many developed countries in the world.
In fact, many foreigners coming to Vietnam and buy sim to use 3G to surf the web, check email, facebook, make phone calls with free applications such as Viber, Skype, most of them are very surprised when they come to remote areas where this premium service is still available. In many developed countries, 3G is not available everywhere as in Vietnam and the price is not cheap like in Vietnam (paid 1 USD, surf the web with 3G for a month).
In the recent two years, the investment in 3G in many countries tend to slow down because of the economic crisis, as well as facing difficulties in increasing revenue. Meanwhile, in Vietnam, after the first launched 3G by VinaPhone, other mobile networks are also take part in a powerful race in the investment in 3G. By the end of 2011, the number of 3G subscribers in Vietnam rose to 16 million people, of which the first network service provider has 6 million. In 2012, despite the economic crisis, revenue from 3G of network service providers are growing, led by VinaPhone with 60% compared with 2011.
In addition to the investment in network expansion, most of the network service providers are optimizing the 3G network, speed up the network access. In particular, VinaPhone is also the pioneer to upgrade 3G to 3.5G, with maximum download speed up to 21.6 Mbps and 5.76 Mbps in terms of upload. MobiFone and Viettel have also made similar moves.
(Source: BDT, ANT Consulting)