Viet Nam is expected to witness one of the largest growths in mobile broadband subscriptions in Southeast Asia together with Myanmar, Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Philippines, by 2021.

The latest edition of the Ericsson’s Mobility Report and the South East Asia and Oceania report, highlighting mobile network coverage and network performance, predicts smartphone subscriptions in Viet Nam will triple from around 30 million in 2015.

By the end of 2015, mobile subscription penetration reached almost 150% in Viet Nam while mobile broadband subscription penetration was close to 40%.

Customers use smartphones at an exhibition in Ha Noi. (Photo:VNA)

Ericsson ConsumerLab analysis based on face-to-face interviews reveals that more than 30% of smartphone and weekly Internet users in Viet Nam are using all these key application categories on a daily basis: social networking, instant messaging and social videos (free online videos or videos on social media).

When looking at each application category, more than 70% of the survey respondents are using social networking, more than 50% using instant messaging and more than 40% using free online videos or videos in social media on a daily basis.

“With a view to monetising mobile data services growth, operators need an environment that enables agility in service creation, delivery and management, with fast launch of a much broader range of innovative products. Innovation comes through an ecosystem of partners and suppliers,” said Jan Wassenius, Head of Ericsson Viet Nam and Myanmar.

“With the roll out of the 4G/LTE network in Viet Nam we expect to see more mobile data services being used. Services such as social networking and video streaming will continue to grow as Vietnamese people continue to embrace the benefit of data connectivity,” Wassenius added.

(Source: VNA)