Vietnam has granted a license to Starlink to operate its satellite Internet services in the country, a government agency said.
The radio frequency regulator said local unit Starlink Services Vietnam Co can initially deploy four gateway stations and a maximum of 600,000 terminal devices in Vietnam.
The licensing requires Starlink to ensure “no interference with existing radio communication networks,” the Authority of Radio Frequency Management announced on Saturday.
Photo: Reuters
The Starlink system would contribute to “expanding satellite internet connectivity,” it added.
Starlink provides high-speed Internet access to remote locations across the world via thousands of low Earth orbit satellites.
Nearly 80 percent of Vietnam’s approximately 100 million people are Internet users, according to the Vietnam Internet Network Information Center.
But gaps in access to Internet service remain in rural and mountainous areas.
Parent company Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) did not immediately reply to a request for comment from AFP.
US-based Starlink says its services in Vietnam are “coming soon,” according to an availability map on its Web site.
Vietnam and the US are negotiating a trade deal after Washington imposed 20 percent tariffs on Vietnamese goods last year.
The two countries held a sixth round of talks this month, but have not reached a final agreement.
Vietnamese President To Lam travels to the US this week for a meeting of US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace,” two sources briefed on the visit told AFP last week.
The board, of which Trump is the chairman, was originally intended to oversee the Gaza Strip after two years of war, but its charter appears to extend beyond the Palestinian territory.
The first meeting is scheduled to take place on Thursday in Washington.
It was not clear if Lam, general secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party, would hold trade talks with Trump.
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