Worried about network congestion during Tet

Although Tet has not yet arrived, many customers have reported difficulties in making calls. Meanwhile, mobile network operators said they are rushing to prepare plans to prevent network congestion during Tet.

Mobile Internet services are expected to increase sharply during Tet holiday -
Photo: Duc Thien

Major network operators have announced that they have completed plans to prevent network congestion during the upcoming Lunar New Year, but no one is 100% sure that they will ensure smooth communication during the holidays.

Not yet Tet but already wavering

Notably, in the month before Tet, we received many complaints from readers about signal loss and unstable network in many areas in Ho Chi Minh City.

Although there have been no major network congestion or signal loss cases, there have been many intermittent problems. The situation that many users have encountered is that they can make calls sometimes and sometimes not, or the phone is on but still beeps, messages cannot be sent, calls are cut off midway...

In recent days, many MobiFone subscribers have lost signal and cannot contact. Mr. Phong (in Ward 2, Vu Tung Street, Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City) reported that from the afternoon of January 16 to the morning of January 17, this area lost MobiFone signal, causing many subscribers to be unable to make phone calls or send messages. Mr. Lam (Tan Phu District, Ho Chi Minh City) also said that "the phone is always on but when other people call, it is "hello". Mr. Sang (District 3, Ho Chi Minh City) reported that since the New Year, many calls have been intermittent, suddenly lost connection while talking... He was even more upset when he contacted the switchboard and was informed by the staff that the network was still normal.

Ready... for congestion!

This is not the first time that the network is unstable before Tet. The same situation happened in previous years, when the network operators blamed the upgrade process to prevent network congestion during the official Tet holiday. However, when Tet comes, the network congestion still occurs, so every year the network operators announce a more grandiose network congestion prevention plan than previous years.

Vinaphone announced that it has completed the work of upgrading and expanding the network, adding base transceiver stations (BTS), optimizing switchboards, and is ready to meet the sudden increase in demand for mobile information services during the Lunar New Year. The network said that its current capacity can meet 200-300% of the daily demand for mobile information services. The switchboard system has also been upgraded to be ready to meet the needs of about 50 million active subscribers. The messaging system can transfer 30 million SMS/hour.

Viettel Networks also said it has made the most spectacular preparations ever to strengthen its network for the Year of the Dragon. According to the company's estimates, Viettel's network system is capable of handling about 200 million calls and more than 500 million incoming and outgoing messages per hour.

Meanwhile, MobiFone said it has invested in a new switchboard system with an additional 36 Gbps connection port to meet the needs of subscribers in areas with a large number of subscribers. At the same time, MobiFone also increased the international Internet connection bandwidth to 1.6 Gbps to serve customers using the Internet during the holidays.

Beeline network representative also said that the network has "prepared both human and material resources" to deal with network congestion. Specifically, Beeline has made plans to identify key areas to increase capacity, and at the same time arranged a technical team on duty 24/7 to observe and forecast areas where network congestion may occur to change traffic in time, ensuring smooth network...

In addition, network operators also said that they have prepared mobile information rescue vehicles to overcome local network congestion due to large crowds at festival and fair locations... in major cities such as Hoan Kiem Lake (Hanoi), District 1 (HCMC)... However, users are still constantly worried that network congestion will still occur.

According to Tuoi Tre