Viettel sets up 5G private mobile network for electronics giant Pegatron

Viettel has successfully trialled a 5G private mobile network (5G PMN) service on a trial plot for a Pegatron factory, the Vietnamese military-run telecom giant announced Thursday.

The factory of the Taiwanese electronics giant in the northern coastal city of Hai Phong became the first one in Vietnam to run automation via 5G technology, which offers high speeds, low latency and multi-connection support.

In the project’s first phase, Viettel will provide 5G technology for five applications. The services will include public cloud computing, assembly station, product testing and production supervision.

The application of 5G technology will help Pegatron improve efficiency and profitability. It will enhance management via real-time data collection, decrease occupational hazards and provide other benefits.

Viettel said its 5G PMN can provide effective solutions for factories, warehouses, seaports and airports to operate efficiently. The success of technology provision at the Pegatron factory proves that it can apply the world's top technology, it added.

Viettel, valued at $8.9 billion in 2022, up $144 million year-on-year, remains the only Vietnamese brand in the 2023 edition of the Global 500 report by valuation consultants Brand Finance. The group has now deployed 5G technology in 58 out of 63 provinces and cities in Vietnam.

Pegatron, a major supplier for Apple, runs two businesses in Vietnam – the Pegatron Vietnam Company Limited (PVN) and Pegatron Technology Hai Phong Company Limited (PHP) – focusing on manufacturing and selling consumer electronics, computers, related peripherals, communications equipment and electronic parts. The two companies were established in March and April 2020, respectively.

In September 2022, the Taiwanese giant poured an additional $100 million into Pegatron Vietnam Company Limited, which had begun constructing a 5.04-hectare worker accommodation project in the northern port city of Hai Phong a few months earlier. The company said it aimed to complete six buildings by the fourth quarter of 2024. The project will improve workers’ livelihoods, reduce the cost of transporting workers and improve labor productivity, it added.

Hai Phong attracted $1.81 billion in foreign direct investment in the first half of this year, up 64.8% year-on-year. The city recorded a gross regional domestic product (GRDP) growth of 9.94% in the same period; and its index of industrial production (IIP) increased 12.28% year-on-year.