From humble beginnings, Viettel nurtured the ambition that 'every Vietnamese citizen should have a mobile phone.' This aspiration drove the corporation to build a nationwide telecommunications infrastructure, ensuring widespread mobile service accessibility and transforming mobile communication from a luxury to a necessity.

Continuing this ambition, Viettel aims for every household to have high-speed fiber-optic Internet and every individual to own a smartphone. Alongside other telecommunications enterprises, Viettel aims to extend fiber-optic Internet to 90% of Vietnamese households. The smartphone has evolved beyond a mere communication tool to become essential for learning, work, entertainment, and livelihoods for Vietnamese citizens.

The miracle of mobile network infrastructure

In 1999, Viettel completed the construction of the 1A optical cable route, using wavelength division multiplexing technology over a distance exceeding 2,300 km. The corporation executed the construction of the first military information transmission route independently over nearly a year, without any foreign partner participation, even in advisory roles.

Building on the success of the 1A milestone, Viettel gained confidence to develop a series of critical optical cable routes, establishing the strongest national telecommunications infrastructure in the region. These include the 1C route transitioning from SDH to DWDM, the AAG submarine cable connecting to the first international route, the Indochina optical cable route, GPON technology optical cables, and other investments across 10 Viettel markets.

Before establishing its optical cable achievements, Viettel's milestone was establishing a mobile broadcasting station network.

With a strong desire to enter the mobile business, Viettel initially planned to pursue joint ventures with foreign partners, as many telecom projects had done before. However, faced with terms that encroached upon the national pride of the Vietnamese people, without hesitation, the leadership at that time collectively stood up, abandoned the negotiations, and decided to go it alone.

With funds sufficient for only 150 BTS stations and 100 staff, Viettel confronted the challenge of independently constructing a mobile network. Overcoming financial constraints by purchasing equipment on deferred payment terms over four years, Viettel managed to surpass initial hurdles and acquire enough equipment for 5,000 broadcasting stations. The subsequent challenge was to rapidly deploy and commence business operations to generate revenue for debt repayment.

Hiring foreign experts would have cost millions of USD and taken a year to build 150 stations. However, leveraging Vietnamese intelligence and creativity, the workforce specialized in cable laying and tower construction devised a grid-like station network design and standardized prototype construction plans. Dozens of deployment teams simultaneously implemented these plans across all provinces nationwide.

Within two years, Viettel possessed more stations than all other networks combined had deployed over the previous decade, establishing a nationwide telecommunications infrastructure that extended to all 63 provinces and cities, reaching even remote districts and communes.

This infrastructure significantly contributed to increasing Vietnam's mobile phone density from 4% to 90% by 2007, currently standing at 130%, transforming mobile service from a luxury to an essential service in Vietnam.

Cutting-edge technology in network infrastruture

From 2G telecommunications technology, Viettel launched the highest-speed and most diverse 3G network in 2010. At its launch, Viettel's 3G broadcasting stations exceeded commitments made to the Ministry of Information and Communications by 1.5 times. The 3G network provided high-speed voice and data access services, promoting the convergence of mobile devices with various consumer electronics.

Seven years later, in 2017, Viettel inaugurated its 4G network, aiming to establish the highest-quality broadband connectivity infrastructure covering 95% of the population. All of Viettel's 4G transmitters and receivers utilize 4T4R (4 transmit, 4 receive) technology, expanding coverage by 1.4 times and increasing download speeds by nearly 2 times.

With the motto 'Advancing with technology, no one is left behind,' Viettel is prepared to ignite the mobile broadband revolution.

On May 10, 2019, Viettel successfully conducted Vietnam's first 5G call, achieving actual connection speeds of 1.5 - 1.7 Gbps, surpassing the limits of 4G networks.

Soon after, Viettel and other network providers pioneered 5G trial broadcasts in provinces and cities. By mid-2023, Viettel took a further step by testing a dedicated 5G network development for Pegatron's factory - one of Apple's leading global suppliers - in Hai Phong.

This initiative transformed Pegatron's factory into Vietnam's first smart factory, opening promising prospects for smart factory applications among businesses operating within Vietnam's territory in the future.

Recently, Viettel successfully auctioned the right to use radio frequencies in the 2500 - 2600 MHz band for 15 years.

This band, planned by the Ministry of Information and Communications, aims to implement 5G and 4G mobile information systems and subsequent technologies, facilitating breakthroughs in economic sectors from manufacturing to transportation, healthcare, agriculture, education, and smart city solutions.

Aspiration for every citizen to have their own data storage

A robust telecommunications infrastructure is the foundation for Viettel to develop the most advanced technology services and build the next-generation infrastructure known as digital infrastructure.

From a vast optical fiber network, Viettel continues to develop an international optical fiber system connecting to major Digital Hubs across Asia, aligning with the Ministry of Information and Communications' strategy 'Developing Vietnam's International Optical Fiber System by 2030, Vision to 2035".

International optical fiber routes provide ultra-large capacity and ultra-wide bandwidth, laying the groundwork for Vietnam to become a regional data center hub (Digital Hub).

Viettel's Hoa Lac Data Center is currently Vietnam's largest data center in terms of capacity.

With ambitions for every Vietnamese citizen, household, organization, and business to have a cloud computing platform hosted in Vietnam, researched, deployed, managed, and securely maintained by Vietnamese engineers, Viettel launched the Viettel Cloud ecosystem in 2022, becoming the nation's largest and most diverse cloud computing service provider.

This ambition drew closer in April 2024, when Viettel inaugurated its 14th data center in Vietnam. With 60,000 servers, 2,400 racks, 21,000 square meters of floor space, and a total power capacity of 30MW, the Hoa Lac Data Center has become Vietnam's largest data center to date.

Currently, Viettel remains the enterprise with the largest and most modern data center system in Vietnam, comprising 14 centers, 230,000 servers, 81,000 square meters of floor space, 11,500 racks, and 87MW of power, equivalent to a global super data center (DC), affirming Viettel's strong commitment to building Vietnam's modern digital infrastructure.

Major General Tao Duc Thang affirmed: "The Digital Transformation Strategy by 2030, the National Digital Infrastructure Development Strategy, reflects Vietnam's ambition to meet the needs of all citizens and organizations, ensuring sovereignty over data, safeguarding our most crucial resource in the digital age. Therefore, Viettel will continuously invest in data centers. As per the roadmap, by 2025, Viettel will expand to 17,000 racks and by 2030 to 34,000 racks, tripling the current scale".

The  General Director of the corporation emphasized: "Viettel is prepared under all conditions to ignite the cloud computing service boom with Vietnamese businesses, realizing the vision where every citizen, household, organization, and business can safely, flexibly, and efficiently compute and store data on the cloud".

Mission to build national logistics infrastructure

Alongside telecommunications and technology, logistics - the lifeline of the economy - also stands as a cornerstone in Viettel's ambition for infrastructure autonomy.

Major General Tao Duc Thang noted that while telecommunications infrastructure serves as the lifeblood of information flow in the economy, digital infrastructure represents the 'infrastructure of infrastructure' in the digital economy, logistics infrastructure is likened to the lifeblood of material flow, playing a crucial role in connecting, supporting, and promoting socio-economic development.

Viettel has constructed the largest and most extensive telecommunications and digital infrastructure in Vietnam. The next step is to develop national logistics infrastructure, contributing to positioning Vietnam as a regional and global logistics hub, aligning with the government's goal for the logistics sector to contribute 5-6% to GDP by 2025.

Viettel's smart sorting technology complex utilizes automated robot solutions, aiming for intelligent logistics infrastructure.

At the beginning of 2024, Viettel inaugurated Vietnam's first smart sorting technology complex, integrating AGV robots, intelligent monitoring systems, Digital Twin technology, AI cameras, enabling comprehensive equipment status control, and monitoring all cargo exploitation activities.

This initiative marks the commencement of Viettel's logistics infrastructure planning, including logistics parks - centers, bonded warehouses, dry ports, connecting agricultural regions, industrial parks with road, rail, airports, seaports, and customs systems to facilitate the fastest and lowest-cost circulation of goods.

Like many other sectors within the corporation, the 'go global' objective is also the main strategy of the Logistics pillar. In 2024, Viettel expanded its investments into China and other Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Cambodia, and Myanmar.

This initiative aims to connect the ASEAN market of 700 million people with China's 1.4 billion population and the Indian Ocean countries, Pacific Islands.