More than 60 million mobile subscribers in Vietnam migrated off 2G networks since the Ministry of Information and Communications unveiled plans in late 2019 to start shutting down the network to free up spectrum for 4G and 5G services.

GSMA Intelligence estimates the country had 9.1 million 2G connections at end-September, down from 71.6 million at the same point in 2019.

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Meanwhile, 4G connections increased from 18.1 million to 80.9 million and 3G from 55.3 million to 77.3 million.

Total mobile connections rose from 145 million to 167.3 million.

The country now plans to end 2G service by September 2024, Vietnam News Service (VNS) reported.

To support the migration, the government will distribute 400,000 new handsets to disadvantaged people, VNS wrote citing a source at the Authority of Telecommunications.

Marker leader Viettel’s 2G connections dropped from 5 million at end-September 2022 to 2 million at the same point of this year, representing 3.3 per cent of its total mobile connections.

Vinaphone’s number fell 61.5 per cent to 2.2 million (6.6 per cent).

Mobifone’s declined from 11 million to 3.9 million (11.4 per cent)

Vietnamobile registered a 64.2 per cent drop to less than 505,000 (2.5 per cent).