The government has approved a list of bandwidths that will be auctioned in a bid to help mobile service providers expand their service coverage.

The list includes three bandwidths ranging from 2,300 MHz to 2,400 MHz, 2,500 MHz to 2,570 MHz and 2,620 MHz to 2,690 MHz, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC).

These bandwidths should meet the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000) standard, as defined by the International Telecommunication Union, which includes GSM EDGE, UMTS and CDMA2000 as well as DECT and WiMAX.

Better known as 3G or 3rd Generation, the IMT standard is for services such as wide-area wireless voice telephone, video calls and wireless data, all in a mobile environment.

Thus, 3G networks enable operators to offer users a wider range of advanced services, while achieving greater network capacity through improved spectral efficiency.

After the auction, the duration of use of these bandwidths will be regulated by the Authority of Radio Frequency Management (ARFM) under the MIC.

In recent years, new mobile subscriptions in Vietnam have skyrocketed, reaching 19 million in 2006, 25 million in 2007, 74 million in 2008 and 98 million in 2009. At the end of April, there were more than 134 million recorded subscribers.-VNA