Vietnam’s 5G Sprint to Near-nationwide Coverage—and the Early 6G Bet | Vietnam 5G Network Rollout

Operator execution sits at the center of this story. Viettel said it installed 23,500 5G stations in 2025 alone, taking its total to over 30,000 stations. Viettel also reported 90% outdoor coverage and 70% indoor coverage nationwide, from urban centres to rural areas, and ranked among the world’s top 15 for 5G infrastructure scale last year. The company is also described as the only operator in Vietnam to have fully deployed a standalone 5G (5G SA) network, capable of delivering speeds of up to 10 Gbps, while real-world 5G speeds are typically 15–20 times faster than 4G. For the broader vietnam 5g network rollout, Viettel’s next step is to add about 20,000 more stations in 2026 to extend coverage to 98% of the population.

What VNPT and MobiFone Are Building, and Where 5G Goes Next

Vietnam’s other large operators are expanding with different emphasis areas and spectrum choices. VNPT plans to expand using the C-band and roll out services on the newly licensed 700 MHz spectrum by mid-2026. VNPT’s 5G network is expected to comprise around 16,000 stations and cover 50–60% of the population, focusing on city centres, highways, industrial zones, seaports, and airports. A VNPT representative said 5G speeds are 10–15 times higher than 4G and highlighted enterprise use cases such as automated production, telemedicine, and smart cities. MobiFone, meanwhile, is prioritising industrial parks, urban areas, and major cities in 2026, stating its 5G services are about 10 times faster than 4G, with latency reduced to between 1 and 30 milliseconds.

By mid-2026, reported coverage continued to climb. At a Ministry of Science and Technology press conference in July, Nguyen Anh Cuong said telecom companies had installed more than 40,000 5G base stations nationwide, bringing coverage to approximately 92% of the population. The same briefing noted that many countries typically take 2–3 years to reach around 90% population coverage, while Vietnam shortened that timeline and expanded quickly. Another notable point from the July updates was equipment self-sufficiency: over 2,500 5G base stations have been researched, manufactured, and commercially operated by domestic businesses, equivalent to about 5–6% of operational 5G base stations. Officials also said the time to master equipment shortened from about 4 years for 4G to 2 years for 5G, and separately noted it took more than eight years from 4G standardisation to produce and master 4G equipment.

That manufacturing and deployment learning curve is now being used to justify an earlier push into 6G. Vietnam’s Ministry of Science and Technology has established a 6G Steering Committee bringing together regulatory agencies, telecom companies, universities, and research institutes. The stated goal is to promote research and prepare resources early, while participating in international consensus and standardisation through bodies such as the ITU and 3GPP. Officials said early involvement helps Vietnam contribute to standards from the outset rather than waiting until technology is perfected. Alongside terrestrial networks, Vietnam is also building a broader connectivity architecture that includes undersea capacity and satellite options. Vietnam participates in six undersea cable routes with total capacity of 80 Tb/s, and in February 2026 the Authority of Telecommunications granted a five-year pilot licence to SpaceX’s Starlink service for up to 600,000 subscribers.