"This may be good news for us," says farmer Tran Van Tinh of Thuong Tin District, Ha Tay Province.
"When my village, Hien Giang, gets internet access, I’ll be able to get information the same way that anyone in France or the US who has access to the internet can," he says happily.
Nguyen Van Tien and his wife live in a poor village close to Dong Dang market in Lang Son Province. He says that Viet Nam Television VTV signals are weak in such mountainous areas.
"We wouldn’t be able to receive TV signals at all if we used normal antennae. So all the people in my village had to install our own illegal satellite antennae to receive TV programmes from the Philippines’ Agila satellite," he says.
"When we have our own satellite, I believe it will bring us many benefits, as it can serve our demand for television, data transmission and the internet," he says.
Representatives of the Viet Nam Post and Telecommu-nications Group (VNPT) say the satellite will affirm Viet Nam’s sovereignty over space above the country and help rescue fishermen who face storms while at sea by forecasting weather and preventing damages caused by a lack of preparedness. The satellite’s full capacity is equivalent to 10,000 phone, internet and data transmissions or 120 television channels.
"With such capacity, VINASAT-1 will help Viet Nam complete its plans to bring telecommunication services, internet and television to all remote, isolated areas like the mountains and islands," says VNPT deputy general director Nguyen Ba Thuoc.
Hoang Minh Thong, director of the project’s management board (under VNPT), says the satellite will be "the foundation to supply high-tech services".
"These services include satellite frequency band hiring, channels for rent by enterprises, mobile image broadcasting, distance training, Design Tech Home (DTH) television, television for conferences and data transfer for banks.
"Also, the satellite will transmit all signals for telecommunications, internet, radio and television within its covered areas."
The satellite can span all of Viet Nam including its seas and islands. It also extends across other parts of Southeast Asia, an eastern part of China, and to India, Korea, Japan, Australia and Hawaii, according to VNPT.
With this satellite, VNPT can cover the whole country, from the remote villages of ethnic minorities in the northern Ha Giang and Lao Cai provinces to the fishing vessels in the sea off the southernmost Ca Mau Province. Vietnamese people all over the country can install satellite signal receivers on the ground to watch TV, to use land lines and mobile phones, and especially, use the internet.
Since the day the Vietnamese gained access to the internet, on November 19, 1997, the regions that are "hungry" for information, such as remote and isolated areas, still lack access to services.
Some regions have had internet, but signals are only transmitted via telephone lines, so service prices are too expensive, especially for rural and mountainous peoples.
What results is that in cities, people are submerged in an abundance of information and can easily access advanced technology like wifi, wi-max and bluetooth. But rural residents who require information to help improve living conditions remain in the dark. I strongly believe that when these remote villages gain access to the internet, the areas will totally transform.
Fewer farmers will feel the need to move to the cities to seek jobs, since the internet can help them improve their production methods and working conditions with the experience and knowledge gleaned from other people in other places.
Young people may grow more attached to their rural villages because they will not need to travel to large cities to gain access to knowledge and information from the internet. Also, they will have broader access to entertainment.
Internet will raise the development of wire service shops, internet cafes, computer accessory and repair shops and many other related jobs.
Many people become almost "addicted" to the internet once it becomes part of their lives.
"Life can be very boring without the internet. I can’t live and work without it," says Le Diem Van, a young staff member of a Ha Noi-based advertisement company.
So, when rural and mountainous areas have access to the internet, this could help lure more intellectuals to work and live in these areas. Many State officials are afraid of working in the countryside or going on business trips to remote areas, partly because they find these areas boring due to lack of entertainment facilities.
Moreover, when our e-Government system is complete, the internet will even function as a "compulsory tool" for all the officials and staff of local governments and organisations, even in communes and villages.
So we are waiting for the satellite to be launched, and hoping that VNPT will keep its promise to bring the internet to rural and remote areas at a reasonable cost so people in those areas can reap the benefits.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Trung Hieu
Quelle/Source: Viet Nam News, 30.03.2008
