Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Le Nam Thang.

VietNamNet Bridge - Sustainable development of telecommunications infrastructure was the top concern of Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Le Nam Thang during an online public forum hosted on the VietnamNet website Thursday.

During the meeting, the deputy minister answered nearly 30 questions from members of the public.

Participants raised concerns about the lack of infrastructure planning in the telecommunications industry, leading to haphazard cable and base transceiver station installation. People expressed concern that the willy-nilly placing of base transceiver stations could lead to future health problems for residents close to stations, and that cables were becoming an eye-sore.

Deputy Minister Thang noted that the Government had introduced preferential policies to speed up development of the telecommunications industry, and that rapid growth had led to unexpected problems which would be solved in a timely manner.

Thang said completing a legal framework for the industry was the first step in addressing problems.

"The ministry is also drafting a law on telecommunication to submit to the Government this year. If approved, the law would create a legal basis to widely and deeply develop the country’s telecommunications system and information technology."

The draft would include regulations to ensure the quality of telecom services and require telecommunications infrastructure planning to be suitable to the planning of construction projects such as urban areas and economic zones.

In fact, the ministry issued technical regulations to manage cable network installation and was now encouraging telecom companies to build infrastructure underground, Thang said.

People’s Committees in provinces and cities such as Ha Noi and HCM City were also working out documents regulating enterprises install cable underground.

Thang, addressing concerns over base transceiver stations, said that telecom companies must receive certificates of technical and health standards when installing stations, granted by the Verification Department under the ministry.

About 6,000 stations have been granted with certificates.

The verification would be carried out every three years for each station. Enterprises must upgrade stations that do not meet standards.

When asked whether the ministry had any direction to help telecom services providers develop their technology comprehensively to ensure compatibility amongst companies, Thang said that based on international experience and the country’s current situation, telecom mangement authorities were letting enterprises select technology by themselves by considering factors such as operation scale, capital source, and demand for market development.

In Vietnam there are eight telecom services providers but their scale, financial capacity and technical capacity are different.

(Source: VNS, VNN)