Ericsson drives Industry 4.0 in Vietnam

Recently, Ericsson hosted Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and a delegation of Vietnamese government dignitaries and business leaders at its headquarters in the Swedish capital of Stockholm. The prime minister was greeted by Börje Ekholm, president and CEO of Ericsson Group, together with Denis Brunetti, president of Ericsson Vietnam and Myanmar. During the visit, Ericsson demonstrated the latest technology advancements in relation to 5G, the Internet of Things (IoT), automation, artificial intelligence, and edge computing, highlighting their relevance to Vietnam in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution as it pertains to industry digitalisation and transformation.

PM Phuc and Ekholm also witnessed the signing of the Industry 4.0 and IoT Innovation Co-operation Agreement between Ericsson and Vietnam’s telecommunication giant Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT). The agreement aims to foster collaboration in expanding IoT capabilities across VNPT’s mobile network leveraging Ericsson’s IoT cellular capability and VNPT’s IoT ecosystem, providing digital services to its consumer and enterprise customers, as well government bodies in support of e-government initiatives.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (middle) and the leaders of Ericsson expressed great faith in future co-operation

Historical agreements

Following the signing, the agreement was exchanged in the presence of PM Phuc and his Swedish counterpart Stefan Löfven, reflecting the highly strategic nature of the partnership for both countries as it aims to accelerate the adoption of Industry 4.0 in Vietnam, digitally transforming all industries over time, including manufacturing and production, agriculture, transport, and energy.

Ericsson has also signed a strategic partnership on the promotion of economic development activities related to Industry 4.0 with the Multilateral Economic Co-operation Department (MECD) of Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This partnership aims to strengthen the co-operation between Ericsson and Vietnam in the promotion of economic development activities related to Industry 4.0 and builds upon the close and long-lasting relationship between Vietnam and Sweden. The agreement focuses on sharing relevant Industry 4.0, IoT, and 5G global information, contributing to the formulation and implementation of Vietnam’s socio-economic development plans in 2020-2030.

Both agreements support the Vietnamese government’s vision of leveraging science, technology, and innovation to drive the next wave of hi-tech foreign direct investment (FDI) and inclusive socio-economic development in Vietnam.

Speaking at the occasion, Pham Duc Long, CEO of VNPT Group, stated, “The joint initiative between VNPT and Ericsson will support VNPT’s plan of driving smart city and Industry 4.0 initiatives across Vietnam, creating additional value for our consumer and enterprise customers through advanced digital services enabled by 4G Narrowband IoT for less demanding Massive IoT use cases at the beginning, and 5G for more advanced use cases with much higher data volume and extreme low-latency requirements in the near future. We thank Ericsson for proactively engaging with VNPT for this strategic partnership. We also plan to leverage these IoT capabilities across VNPT’s global business in multiple markets.”

Reflecting on both strategic initiatives, Brunetti said, “VNPT and Ericsson are seeking to build an enabling innovation platform and foundation for Industry 4.0 through this partnership. By providing our 4G NB-IoT capabilities as well as leveraging our recently launched IoT Innovation Hub in Vietnam, we are looking to fuel and drive the IoT ecosystem in Vietnam and create momentum towards 5G. Through the partnership we have forged with the MECD, we are demonstrating our commitment and strategic alignment with the government’s vision of accelerating the adoption of Industry 4.0 across all industries in Vietnam, with the aim of growing the digital economy and driving the next wave of socio-economic development in 2020-2030, enabled by the Vietnamese government’s three pillars of science, technology, and innovation.”

IoT journey

On May 10, Ericsson partnered with Vietnam’s telecommunication giant Viettel to make the first 5G call in Vietnam, aligning the country with other global markets that are working on early 5G deployments. This is a highly strategic milestone for Vietnam since 5G is the critical national infrastructure and enabling innovation platform for Industry 4.0.

The previous month, the Vietnamese Ministry of Science and ­Technology and Ericsson also ­announced the launch of the IoT ­Innovation Hub in Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park in Hanoi. The hub – the first of its kind in Vietnam – will provide the innovation platform to support startups and promote innovation-based entrepreneurship.

Targeting mobile operators, enterprises, students, researchers, and local startups, the hub seeks to empower and enable the users to co-create, develop, and trial IoT applications as well as support them in commercialising their applications. It will serve as a learning and education platform as well as a research and development platform that focuses on accelerating Vietnam’s advancement in IoT and Industry 4.0. Furthermore, the hub will help realise the nation’s full socio-economic potential through the sustainable benefits of industry digitalisation and transformation.

IoT is fundamentally transforming industries and societies. As the IoT application market is widening, more advanced use cases requiring enhanced network capabilities are emerging. With smart and intelligent manufacturing, for example, the number of connected devices across the factory floor will proliferate, leading to massive real-time data collection and analytics, intelligent automation, and adaptive production.

As per the Ericsson Mobility Report’s June 2019 edition, the number of cellular IoT connections globally is expected to reach 4.1 billion in 2024, at an annual growth rate of 27 per cent. Such connections are not specific to one region or industry – they are emerging everywhere.

As a world leader in mobility, Ericsson is at the heart of this transformation by enabling industries and enterprises to be first movers in an increasingly digitalised world, whilst helping service providers move higher up the IoT value chain. For IoT to fulfill its transformational potential, IoT solutions need to be easy to use and scale, and the data needs to be secure and trusted – that is where Ericsson IoT Accelerator comes in. Ericsson’s IoT Accelerator, which is also deployed at the IoT Innovation Hub in Vietnam, is a focused solution, making it easy for local service providers and ecosystem players to connect and deploy devices across larger global ecosystems.

Ericsson has led the definition of the latest cellular IoT technologies, including Cat-M1 and NB-IoT technologies in 3G partnership project standardisation, and has subsequently launched its Massive IoT solutions. Today, Ericsson enables more than half of the commercial NB-IoT and Cat-M1 networks worldwide, including leading operators like Verizon, Sprint, and KDDI. To address and further accelerate this growth, Ericsson has laid out a vision for cellular IoT evolution with four well-defined market segments: Massive IoT, Broadband IoT, Critical IoT, and Industrial Automation IoT. These segments will leverage new capabilities with 4G LTE and 5G that will enable service providers to tap into growth opportunities in industry digitalisation in a step-wise approach.

IoT holds enormous potential for creating economic gains through improved efficiency, the differentiation and new business models for companies, as well as bringing additional benefits to society through improved well-being, convenience, and safety. Focusing on science, technology, and innovation, and embracing the accelerated adoption of Industry 4.0 through 4G NB-IoT and 5G capabilities, Vietnam is well on its way to creating a digital ecosystem that will attract hi-tech FDI and drive the next wave of inclusive and sustainable socio-economic development across the nation.