The technology of Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) has been introduced to Vietnam, yet unable to attract much interest from related businesses. The turning point came when Viettel announced its successful implementation of the technology in the recent Mobile World Congress 2019 (MWC 2019), themed ‘Intelligent Connectivity’ and held in Spain. Now many practical applications of NB-IoT are more sought-after.

New technology promises better implementation of IoT in VN

Among various researches and developments in the field of mobile information industry for IoT, NB-IoT focuses specially on indoor coverage, low cost, longer battery life, and availability of more connectivity.

This new technology exploits another development called Long Term Evolution for Machine (LTE-M) to allow battery-run IoT devices to directly connect with the 4G network without any connection portal. Applying NB-IoT, mobile network providers can take full advantage of existing 4G LTE infrastructure.

Since using the narrow bandwidth of 200KHz, NB-IoT is an excellent choice for those of low demand in bandwidth, and thus effectively saving battery life.

Since 2017, Samsung Vietnam has signed cooperation contracts with one NB-IoT solution provider in order to increase the speed of IoT service exploitation nationwide.

After that, several famous international technological corporations have tried to introduce NB-IoT in Ho Chi Minh City. However, this has not received sufficient interest.

Thanks to the MWC 2019 in Barcelona of Spain, which honored Viettel in the Top 50 First Businesses to Succeed in NB-IoT, the potential of further implementing this new technology to master IoT in Vietnam has been fully realized.

Viettel commented that this successful application of NB-IoT is the result of two-year research, In the beginning of December 2018, Viettel was able to activate 30 transceiver stations that have a platform to offer NB-IoT in Hanoi, making it the first in the country to deliver the commercial IoT network. It is expected that the whole platform and necessary facilities will be available to the general public in the first half of 2019.

At the moment, Viettel is piloting certain applications on the IoT platform like smart parking, air quality monitoring, location tracking, metering devices. These will be the foundation for a predicted boom in IoT services in the near future.

Viettel is also planning to first cover Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City with NB-IoT in the first quarter of 2019, then expand this to the whole nation, and then to international markets like Peru, Cambodia, Tanzania.