Telcos upgrade networks to reduce jamming
By Hien Nguyen - The Saigon Times Daily
HCMC – Mobile carriers have completed their network upgrades to reduce jamming incidents caused by overload during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday when phone usage demand traditionally soars.
Tran Minh Huy, deputy director of Viettel Telecom in HCMC, on Monday told the Daily that network jamming in the L
unar New Year, or Tet, would lessen because Viettel recently completed its network upgrade.
According to Huy, last year Viettel added another 8,000 base transceiver stations (BTS), taking the total to 21,000. In the lead up to Tet, the military-run telecom provider will install about 7,000- 8,000 BTSs for the third generation network (3G).
“With the new 3G stations, it will contribute to increasing its network capacity and reducing network overload,” he added.
Besides network upgrade, Viettel plans to use 30 mobile BTSs in highly populated areas to meet strong demand at Tet.
Although Viettel is well prepared to cope with network jamming, Huy noted, network overload may happen when millions of users made calls to or text each other at the same time.
Viettel now has around 48 million subscribers. Like Viettel, MobiFone and Vinaphone are working hard to put network overload under control during Tet. The two carriers said the situation will be less severe when they upgraded their networks to 3G.
According to Vinaphone, the carrier now has 17,000 base transceiver stations using 2G technology and 5,000 other stations using 3G technology. It has just completed the maintenance of its call center and increased its network capacity to accommodate 50 million users although it has 27 million subscribers at the moment.
Vinaphone expects to lure another one million subscribers during the Tet holiday.
MobiFone said it had enhanced its network capacity and connections with other networks up to 5Gbps. It will have 30 mobile BTSs in busy areas.
However, carriers have advised clients should not make calls or send text messages during peak hours, especially at the moment the old year is out.