In 1993, mobile signal coverage was limited to four urban areas: Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Bien Hoa, and Vung Tau, provided by two companies. Postpaid mobile rates were 8,000 VND per minute, not including a monthly subscription fee of over 200,000 VND. To compare, the per-minute mobile call rate in Vietnam at that time was about 0.75 USD, whereas today it averages around 0.05 USD. Even without considering inflation, 8,000 VND for a minute call in 2024 would be an almost unthinkable price, and few users today would be willing to pay it. This "sky-high" price, as described by many National Assembly members and the press at that time, was the reason why only 4% of Vietnamese people could access mobile services in the early 2000s.

Finding a way in difficulties

"The government's wise decision was to allow Viettel to be established and participate in civilian telecommunications activities. The first beneficiaries were the Vietnamese people. Viettel's creation, my first impression, was to reduce telecommunications costs and increase supply capacity" recalled Ms. Pham Chi Lan, a former member of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Group, about the early days when Viettel entered the telecommunications industry.

VoIP 178, the first "OTT application" in Vietnam developed by Viettel in 2000, allowed long-distance calls at unprecedentedly low prices, bringing Viettel around 10 million USD in capital to enter the mobile market. However, developing mobile infrastructure is extremely expensive, and that amount was only enough to buy and install about 150 BTS stations. To operate a mobile network, each city required at least 50 stations, given the population density at that time. Without any assets, Viettel could not borrow hundreds of millions of USD from banks to develop the infrastructure. Although it had a business license, Viettel's mobile project faced the risk of early failure due to a lack of funds.

"The problem at that time was that there was no money and no collateral to secure a loan" Mr. Nguyen Manh Hung, Minister of Information and Communications, who was then the Deputy Director of Viettel recalled.

During a business trip to Thailand to learn from experience, Mr. Hung received a groundbreaking piece of advice from Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra, the Chairwoman of Thailand's largest telecommunications group AIS. She noted that the 2G telecommunications equipment market was experiencing a surplus because development had stagnated, and few telecommunications companies still wanted to buy equipment.

"She even joked that now you could ask for it, and people would give it to you. We realized that when manufacturers lack buyers, they only need to maintain operations, even at low or zero profits, and figured out how to persuade manufacturers to allow deferred payments" Mr. Hung recounted.

Right after the meeting, Mr. Hung called back to Vietnam to seek the opinion of Viettel's Director at that time, Lieutenant General Hoang Anh Xuan, proposing to buy 5,000 BTS stations on credit and received the response: "Go for it!"

"The decision was made very quickly but based on understanding the market and technology. We knew that Vietnam only had 4% mobile phone users, that investing in large coverage would reduce costs for users by thousands of times, and we were confident of successful business" Mr. Hung said.

From difficulties to the strategy of "Surrounding cities with rural areas"

Before Viettel entered the mobile market, other companies had dominated 95% of the urban and large city market share. Therefore, newcomer Viettel chose the strategy of gaining market share by "surrounding cities with rural areas": wherever it was farthest, hardest, whether on islands or mainland, highlands or uplands, as long as there was no mobile signal, there would be Viettel.

But things were not as easy as Viettel thought. Initially, Viettel hired to design 150 BTS stations with a budget of 1 million USD, meaning nearly 7,000 USD per station. The design speed was two weeks per station. Thus, Viettel would need decades and hundreds of millions of dollars to establish a nationwide mobile network.

During a business trip to Indonesia, Viettel's leaders met with the American 62-year-old technical director of Extrenco, a  telecommunications company. After hearing Viettel's concerns about BTS station design, this expert suggested Viettel grid each station about 500-800 meters apart in a mesh pattern, adding more stations in high-density areas from 200-400 meters apart, as the essence of each station is to transmit signals to meet a certain usage capacity.

From this initial advice, placing thousands of BTS stations was completed in just one day. Consequently, Viettel was able to build thousands of BTS stations rapidly. The "newcomer" in the telecommunications industry quickly established a nationwide network, bringing mobile signals to everyone and significantly reducing service costs.

"Continuous efforts created a great belief in Viettel that we could master the telecommunications industry. Self-mastery gave us confidence, stimulated national pride, and led to countless innovations and improvements" said Lieutenant General Hoang Anh Xuan.

Popularizing telecommunications in Vietnam

Less than a year after launching the mobile network with the 098 prefix, Viettel reached 1 million subscribers, a milestone that previous network operators took more than 10 years to achieve. Three years later, Viettel became the company with the largest telecommunications market share. Mobile services were no longer "services for the wealthy" but became accessible to all Vietnamese people.

"Everyone benefited" said former President Truong Tan Sang, who was the head of the Central Economic Commission at the time Viettel launched its telecommunications services. "After entering the telecommunications business, Viettel was the fastest-growing, most successful company, not only reducing telecommunications service costs but also contributing to the country's economic development".

Following the success of Vietnam's first mobile generation, Viettel also pioneered quality and coverage in 3G and 4G generations and won the "golden spectrum" providing the best coverage for 5G in the upcoming deployment phase. According to Umlaut's assessment in 2023, Viettel continues to be the network with the best service quality in Vietnam and ranks among the top 40 networks with the best quality in the world. To date, Viettel has covered 97% of Vietnam's population, 99% of districts, and 6,300 communes nationwide, including many remote, border, and island communes.