Viettel Ends 2G, Pushes Users to 4G and 5G
Viettel’s shutdown of its 2G network is more than a technical upgrade: it forces millions of users onto 4G and 5G infrastructure, accelerating Vietnam’s shift toward a faster, safer and more monetizable mobile economy.
For investors, the big takeaway is that the country’s telecom market is entering a new capex-to-cash-flow phase. Once a legacy network is switched off, carriers can concentrate traffic, improve service quality and steer customers toward higher-value data plans, devices and digital services. That is the playbook global operators want: less spending on obsolete infrastructure, more revenue from modern networks that support richer usage and better pricing power.
Viettel said it moved about 8.6 million subscribers onto newer technology in just more than eight months, cutting the pool of users still needing migration from 9.3 million at the end of 2025 to roughly 750,000 by Sept. 15, 2026. By the time 2G was turned off, 99% of customers were using voice and data on 4G or 5G networks, while 4G coverage had reached 99.7% of the population, above the footprint of the old 2G system.
That scale matters economically because it shows the upgrade is no longer a niche urban story. It is a national network transition reaching remote border areas, islands and other hard-to-serve locations. Viettel is already planning for the next leg, targeting about 50,000 5G sites by 2026 and coverage of 97% of the population. That level of infrastructure buildout should support higher data consumption, lower churn and better long-term service economics.
The operational benefits are immediate. Viettel said call-drop rates are 59% lower on 4G than on 2G, while voice connections are faster and users can keep browsing during calls. The company is also leaning on security as a selling point: shutting down 2G reduces exposure to fake base stations and other fraud risks tied to older authentication systems, a point that should resonate with regulators and enterprise customers alike.
The transition was managed carefully, with subsidy programs, handset trade-ins, device checks and in-home support for users who still relied on older phones. That matters because the biggest risk in any network sunset is disruption. Viettel appears to have limited that risk, while keeping 2G alive only in a few offshore and defense-related locations where national security requirements still apply.
The investment angle is straightforward. The market tends to underestimate how powerful a forced technology migration can be for telecom earnings. Moving customers off 2G does not just improve user experience; it raises the floor for ARPU, speeds adoption of smartphones and eSIM-era services, and gives operators more room to extract value from 5G-enabled applications over time. In a region where mobile internet remains a primary gateway to commerce, finance and entertainment, this is the kind of structural upgrade that compounds.
For anyone exposed to Vietnam telecoms or the wider Asian network-equipment supply chain, Viettel’s 2G sunset is a reminder that the next bull case is not about more towers alone — it is about replacing old traffic with premium traffic. The winners are carriers, handset makers and 5G infrastructure vendors. The losers are legacy-device users, obsolete network equipment and any operator still delaying the switch.
| Entity | Gains | Losses |
|---|---|---|
| Viettel | ▲Higher-quality traffic mix | ▼2G maintenance burden |
| Vietnamese consumers | ▲Faster, safer connectivity | ▼Older handset users |
| 5G equipment vendors | ▲More rollout demand | ▼Legacy 2G gear |
| Rival operators delaying upgrades | ▲Pressure to modernize | ▼Pricing and churn risk |