A report released this week by OpenSignal, a British company which measures mobile user experience globally, says Vietnam’s 4G average download speed clocked at 20.6 Mbps, faster than the rest of Southeast Asian countries.

Singapore has the fastest download speed of mobile data in Southeast Asia and sixth globally at 47.5 Mbps.

Young people surf Internet on their phones in Tao Dan Park in Ho Chi Minh City.

In Southeast Asia, Laos ranked 52nd (17.1 Mbps), Brunei 55th (16.4 Mbps), Myanmar 56th (16.4 Mbps); Malaysia 73rd (11 Mbps); Indonesia 80th (9.9 Mbps); Thailand at 81st (9.2 Mbps); the Philippines 83rd (8.5 Mbps) and Cambodia at 87th (8 Mbps).

Canada’s 4G download speed is the fastest in the world at 59.6 Mbps, followed by South Korea and the Netherlands.

Vietnamese users have seen a 46.6 percent increase in their download speed over the previous year, when it was clocked at 14.1 Mbps.

The report was compiled using tests and results gathered from 43.3 million mobile devices around the world, with over 87 million measurements between January 1 and March this year.

Vietnam’s 4G networks performed better in terms of availability than speed, ranking 36th among 100 economies, with Vietnamese users having access to 4G networks 87.9 percent of the time, higher than Laos (86.2 pct), Malaysia (84.4 pct), Brunei (83.1 pct), and the Philippines (81.5 pct), the report said.

Vietnamese telecom firms started piloting 4G, the fourth generation of broadband cellular network technology, succeeding 3G, in December 2015. The government plans to expand coverage to 95 percent of the population by 2020.

The telecom firms are also chasing a head start in the 5G race, with Vietnam aiming to become an early adopter of the technology. Telecom giant Viettel broadcast from its network of 5G base transceiver stations in Ho Chi Minh City last September for the first time.

Around 64 million people, or over half the country's population, are online.

Launching the 5G mobile technology

Despite applying the 2G, 3G and 4G technologies later than many other countries, by launching its first 5G call early last month, Vietnam has become one of the nations with the earliest successful piloting of the 5G mobile network in the world. The fact affirms that Vietnam has caught up with the leading countries in information and communication technology (ICT) around the globe.

Nikkei: Vietnam aims to become first 5G service provider in Southeast Asia

Vietnam aims to become the first country in Southeast Asia to put 5G into commercial operation in 2020, according to Japanese daily Nikkei.

Minister spotlights role of 5G at ASEAN Conference

Minister of Information and Communication (MIC) Nguyen Manh Hung highlighted the role of 5G – the next generation of wireless technology – as the pillar of the digital economy at the ASEAN Conference on 5G in Hanoi on March 21.

Viettel gets one-year 5G trial license

Vietnam's largest telecommunications company Viettel has received a license to trial its 5G services.

Economic potential of 5G technology

  

Source: VnExpress