HANOI, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) — The Vietnamese Ministry of Information and Communications has just licensed local telecoms firm MobiFone to provide 4G telecommunications services, the ministry's Telecommunications Department said on Tuesday.

The ministry, which last week licensed the two first Vietnamese telecoms giants, Viettel and VinaPhone, to offer 4G telecommunications services, is considering to license the fourth company, GTel, in the coming time.

MobiFone started providing 4G services on a trial basis in Hanoi, central Da Nang city and Ho Chi Minh City in July. Military-run Viettel did the same in southern Ba Ria Vung Tau province and Hanoi in late 2015, and VinaPhone in Ho Chi Minh City and southern Kien Giang province in early 2016.

By early September, Vietnam had signed up over 128.3 million mobile subscribers, including nearly 63.6 million subscribers of Viettel, over 34.6 million subscribers of MobiFone, more than 20.5 million subscribers of VinaPhone, nearly 5.9 million subscribers of GTel, and over 3.7 million subscribers of Vietnamobile, according to statistics from the ministry.