Vietnam coverage

What the Vietnam numbers mean

Two numbers matter and only one of them is the one every seller quotes. The typical speed, 56 Mbps, tells you what a good moment looks like.

The tenth percentile, 13 Mbps, is the one that matters. It is the speed in the worst tenth of the day, when the cell above the station is full and everybody around you is on it too. A country with a high median and a low floor is a country that works beautifully right up until the moment you actually need it.

If the trip depends on video calls or tethering, plan around the busy figure rather than the typical one.

What happens in Vietnam when the network is busy

Congestion is not a fault, it is a Tuesday evening. The question is what your eSIM can do about it, and for most travel eSIMs the answer is nothing: one wholesale agreement per country, one network, and no way out except buying a second eSIM from somebody else while standing in the street.

Here, Orbislo traffic runs over Viettel and Vinaphone. When the network you are on degrades we move you to another one, mid trip, without you asking, and tell you afterwards rather than interrupting you at the time.

Mobile operators in Vietnam

• Viettel: Viettel won the 2500 to 2600 MHz block at auction on 8 March 2024, paying 7,533,257,500,000 dong for the full 15 year licence. The minister approved the result on 22 March 2024.
• VNPT: VNPT won the 3700 to 3800 MHz block after 17 bidding rounds at the auction held on 19 March 2024, one of the three mid band blocks Vietnam set aside for 5G.
• MobiFone: MobiFone won the 3800 to 3900 MHz block when it was auctioned again on 9 July 2024. The ministry said the award would lift the total spectrum licensed for mobile broadband to 640 MHz.
• Viettel: Viettel holds the 713 to 723 MHz and 768 to 778 MHz pair in the 700 MHz band, won on 20 May 2025 for 1,995,613,000,000 dong over a 15 year licence.
• VNPT: VNPT won the 703 to 713 MHz and 758 to 768 MHz pair on 16 September 2025. The ministry says 700 MHz reaches 2.6 times the area of 1800 MHz, cutting the number of masts needed by three to four times, which matters most in rural and mountain areas.
• Vietnamobile: At the 900 MHz auction on 9 September 2026, the first in which three operators each won a block, VNPT took 900 to 905 and 945 to 950 MHz, Viettel 905 to 910 and 950 to 955 MHz, and Vietnamobile 910 to 915 and 955 to 960 MHz, each for about 1,077 to 1,079 billion dong.
• Viettel, VNPT and MobiFone: Circular 05/2025 of the Ministry of Science and Technology lists Viettel, VNPT and MobiFone as the operators holding a dominant market position in both mobile voice and mobile internet access.

Older networks in Vietnam

• Operators stopped serving phones that support only 2G on 16 October 2024, and switched off the 2G GSM network nationwide from 16 September 2026. The only exceptions are service to the Truong Sa and Hoang Sa islands and the DK offshore platforms.
• A 4G or 5G phone that lacks VoLTE, or has it switched off, may be unable to make ordinary calls now that 2G is gone. The ministry advises turning on VoLTE in the phone's mobile network settings, or asking the operator to check the handset.
• From 16 September 2026 the old GSM spectrum at 890 to 915 MHz and 935 to 960 MHz was replanned and divided into blocks for modern mobile systems, and the 1800 MHz band is likewise replanned for public mobile broadband.
• VNPT tells customers that 3G will be switched off entirely from September 2028, and that anyone still using an old SIM that supports only 2G or 3G should swap it for a 4G SIM at a VNPT shop.

5G in Vietnam

• Viettel was the first operator to launch commercial 5G, on 15 October 2024. VNPT followed with VinaPhone 5G on 10 December 2024 on its 3700 to 3800 MHz band, and MobiFone became the third on 23 June 2025, starting in the centres of the larger cities.
• The ministry describes Viettel as the only operator running complete standalone 5G, with a 5G core as well as 5G radio equipment. Viettel added 23,500 5G base stations in 2025, reaching 30,000 nationwide with 90 percent outdoor and 70 percent indoor coverage.
• Commercial 5G reached 91.2 percent of the population by December 2025. A National Assembly resolution offered state support of up to 15 percent of the investment to any operator that built at least 20,000 5G base stations during 2025.
• By September 2026, 4G reached more than 99 percent of the population, matching the old 2G footprint, and 5G reached 91.9 percent, with a target of 97 percent by the end of 2026. VoLTE systems were upgraded to carry every mobile voice subscriber.
• The 3700 to 3800 MHz and 3800 to 3900 MHz blocks are planned for 5G using TDD under Circular 13/2023, and each winning operator receives a 15 year licence to use its block.
• Spectrum licensed for mobile broadband grew from 340 MHz in 2020 to 660 MHz in 2025 after the 2.6 GHz, 3.7 GHz and 700 MHz awards, placing Vietnam fourth of ten ASEAN countries, behind Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Network notes for Vietnam

• Vietnam reaches the rest of the internet mainly through six submarine cables: AAG, IA, AAE-1, APG, and the two newer systems ADC and SJC2. Submarine cable carries most international traffic, with land cable and satellite as the other routes.
• Around the 2026 Lunar New Year the AAE-1 cable failed on its Thailand segment, removing about 3,700 Gbps, roughly 10 percent of international capacity. Operators rerouted traffic over other cables and no local outages were recorded.
• In 2025 Vietnam brought its own VSTN overland cable into service, designed for 4 Tbps and expandable to 12 Tbps, to reduce dependence on submarine cables. Starlink received a pilot licence in mid February 2026 to supplement coverage in remote, border and island areas.
• The regulator lists the operators' customer care lines as 198 for Viettel, 18001091 for VNPT VinaPhone, 18001090 for MobiFone and 0922789789 for Vietnamobile.