Why are users not satisfied with 3G?

Advertisements are not as good as reality, network operators say well but do poorly... are common comments of many readers about the current state of 3G services.

"The network operators advertise as if it were true, registering for 70,000 VND a month lets you watch clips as much as you want. I drive so I often listen to the radio, but when I hear that commercial, I turn it off, it's so annoying," said Nguyen Duy Nghia.

According to reader Nguyen Duy Sang, the actual 3G speed not matching the advertisement is considered a failure of the network operator. "The network operator often advertises that when the high-speed capacity is used up, the 3G speed will be around 32/32 Kb, but in reality it is only around 30 Kb or less, depending on the package. At this level, users cannot do anything they want."

Reader Le Quang Hung commented that users may be upset about the price increase, but they are even more upset when the network operator says it well but does it poorly. "I can accept paying more, but the network operator must commit to the speed and quality of 3G as advertised. Any comparison of Vietnam's price being cheaper than international prices is meaningless if our quality is at the bottom of the world," commented Le Quang Hung.

According to Netindex, in 2014, Vietnam's 3G speed ranked 113/114 surveyed areas, even far behind Laos and Cambodia. Zing.vn readers said that this is unacceptable when the two largest mobile networks in both Laos and Cambodia are actually provided by Vietnamese enterprises.

"With the same unit, the quality abroad is better than in the country, while the price is not different, which is incomprehensible," reader Tran Ngoc Tu wondered.

Technically, Nguyen Tuan said that, in theory, at maximum, 3.5G can provide speeds of up to 21 Mbps. But in reality, whether 3G or 4G, they are limited by radio transmission. Accordingly, each Mhz of radio waves can transmit a maximum of 2 Mbps, but when deploying the service, each network operator is only allocated a few dozen Mhz of frequency. Therefore, each BTS station will have to carry from several hundred to thousands of subscribers, causing weak data transmission speed.

"To improve speed, network operators have the concept of re-using frequencies. But the most basic thing is to increase BTS stations, increase frequency bands... But this depends on the State's allocation," reader Nguyen Tuan shared.

As for the 3G package service of the network operators, this reader believes that businesses can follow the trend of pushing subscribers to use up the high speed as quickly as possible, to optimize transmission and frequency. "It is possible that even though the high speed capacity has not been used up, due to the infrastructure not being able to meet the demand, subscribers will return to low speed and the network operator will notify that the high speed capacity has run out," he said.

Previously, in a discussion about the future of 4G in Vietnam, a representative of a military network operator in Vietnam admitted that it had failed to deploy 3G. In reality, each network operator was only allocated a certain number of frequency bands, including both high and low frequency bands, to develop services.

Meanwhile, according to Viettel Technology Director Ho Chi Dung, with the current 2,100 MHz frequency of the 3G network, there are places where the indoor signal is not good and it is difficult to compare with the quality of 3G networks in the world.

"The coverage environment in Hanoi can be considered the most complicated, because the houses are small and the alleys are narrow, making it difficult to walk in. Meanwhile, in many areas, the network operator has to spend 4-5 years to install broadcasting stations without obtaining a license," said Mr. Dung.

The license to build a broadcasting station is also a common difficulty for VinaPhone when Mr. Nguyen Nam Long, Deputy General Director of VNPT-Net admitted that if a station covers a ward, it cannot meet the usage needs of the whole ward due to the high density of telephone users and the non-ideal transmission space.

According to Zing.vn