Part 3: Leaving no one behind in the digital movement

For Điện Biên, eradicating telecommunications “dead zones” is therefore not merely about erecting additional BTS towers or stringing more transmission lines. It represents a coordinated race across the entire political system to bring digital opportunities to the most remote, difficult reaches, realizing the steadfast determination to leave no one behind in the digital movement.

Carrying connectivity to remote villages

Despite persistent efforts, approximately 3% of residential areas across Điện Biên still lack stable 4G coverage, and more than 10% of hamlets and villages remain beyond the reach of conventional fiber-optic cables. Infrastructure “dead zones” have inadvertently spawned deficits in socioeconomic development opportunities. Resolute in the stance that no citizen should be left out of the digital movement, at a recent meeting of the provincial Steering Committee for Science and Technology Development, Innovation, and Digital Transformation, provincial Party Secretary and Head of the provincial Steering Committee Trần Tiến Dũng underscored the imperative to continue reviewing connectivity bottlenecks, mobile signal gaps, and internet access deficiencies; concentrate on clearing land recovery hurdles; and accelerate infrastructure progress to establish a unified digital transformation foundation.

According to Phạm Thanh Nam, Deputy Director in charge of the Department of Science and Technology, eliminating digital infrastructure blind spots has been aggressively pursued through multifaceted measures, especially in recent times. Viettel Điện Biên acts as the core operating unit executing dead-zone eradication mandates in 2026. Given rugged mountainous realities, areas devoid of coverage feature steep, fragmented terrain and sparse populations, making conventional fiber-optic deployment difficult. Consequently, the province is driving socialization, partnering with businesses to introduce satellite equipment to these isolated tracts.

“Notably, the province recently received 45 Starlink satellite terminals sponsored by SpaceX to deploy across targeted localities. For communities lacking electricity grids, provider enterprises have formulated solutions incorporating generators to ensure continuous station operation. Under current plans, over 100 new transceiver stations are scheduled for construction and commissioning between now and year-end. Viettel Điện Biên has completed field surveys and operational blueprints to roll out 85 BTS towers across disadvantaged hamlets, villages, and residential clusters; Mobifone has surveyed locations for 10 BTS towers. Simultaneously, network operators are elevating 4G and 5G service quality, targeting 60% coverage across residential areas in 2026,” Nam informed.

For decades, Trạm Củ village in Pú Nhung commune was compared to an isolated oasis. Situated over 20km from the commune administrative center, it represented the most difficult village, lacking electricity, cellular reception, and internet connectivity. In late 2025, within the strategic partnership framework between the Điện Biên provincial People’s Committee and OSB Group, a satellite internet station was officially inaugurated. Rather than relying on traditional fiber optics that face terrain bottlenecks, satellite dish systems linking to the OSBSAT-1 satellite delivered stable transmission. For the first time, domestic phone prefixes functioned in Trạm Củ, enabling teachers to access digital lesson plans and distance learning modules, while villagers tapped into news, online healthcare, and public educational resources.

Tòng Văn Nghiến, Vice Chairman of the Pú Nhung commune People’s Committee, noted that previously, Trạm Củ villagers had to traverse long, arduous distances to reach the commune administrative center to file paperwork and process documentation. Today, thanks to the satellite internet facility, the locality has implemented a two-tier governance model, receiving and processing administrative dossiers online right at the village. The Trạm Củ school site has become a community internet access hub, helping residents familiarize themselves with online public services without exhausting travel.

Alongside Pú Nhung, Chiềng Sinh commune marked a major stride in erasing telecommunications blind spots by coordinating with Viettel Điện Biên to invest in and roll out 4G coverage across its two most remote villages, Huổi Nôm and Hua Sát. To universalize technology practically, more than 100 smartphones and 4G SIM cards were delivered directly into the hands of local households, fulfilling the target of having 100% of households in Huổi Nôm and Hua Sát possess smart mobile devices.

To institutionalize and advance digital infrastructure development, Chiềng Sinh commune enacted its digital infrastructure master plan for the 2026 - 2030 period, aimed at synchronizing data to satisfy administrative and governance imperatives. The commune strives by 2030 to extend broadband 4G coverage to 100% of villages and residential clusters, bring 5G connectivity to over 40% of villages, and ensure universal access to high-speed fiber-optic lines. This stands as a pivotal stride toward elevating state governance efficiency and establishing a springboard for the digital economy across agriculture and essential public services.

Placing people at the center

Nevertheless, signal coverage does not equate to accomplished digital transformation. Modern infrastructure, no matter how costly, remains an empty shell if human beings cannot exploit and utilize its potential. Therefore, across numerous Steering Committee sessions from provincial to grassroots tiers, an overarching consensus has prevailed: placing the people at the center of digital transformation.

Concretizing this orientation, a succession of models, movements, and campaigns have been launched and scaled province-wide, including Digital Party Cells, Digital Union Branches, Digital Families, the Digital Mass Literacy Movement, and the Digital Summer with VNeID Campaign. Core executing forces comprise the police, the Fatherland Front, and socio-political mass organizations.

Significantly, Community Digital Technology Teams cover 100% of hamlets, villages, and residential groups, going door-to-door to guide every citizen in navigating digital spaces. To date, more than 80% of households across the entire province have received direct coaching. These persistent campaigns have transformed VNeID, the National Public Service Portal, the Điện Biên Smart application, and cashless payment solutions from unfamiliar concepts into practical tools embedded in the daily lives of Hmông, Thái, Dao, and Khơ Mú communities, especially smaller ethnic minority populations such as the Cống, Si La, and Sán Chỉ.

Moving beyond basic digital literacy, Điện Biên province executed a breakthrough initiative by bringing AI directly down to commune offices and village sites. In 2026, the province’s Agricultural AI Assistant application recorded more than 5,000 registered accounts with over 30,000 interactions. Today, when an agricultural extension cadre or a local farmer encounters an unfamiliar crop pest while inspecting swidden fields, they simply capture a photograph and upload it to the platform. Within seconds, the AI engine analyzes the image, produces a diagnosis, and outputs an accurate treatment protocol.

Parallel to this, local digital human resources have received targeted focus. In the frontier commune of Mường Nhé, despite economic hardships, 100% of civil servants, public employees, and members of Community Digital Technology Teams have completed at least six instructional modules of the Digital Mass Literacy program. Villages and residential groups maintain regular guidance assisting citizens in adopting essential digital platforms. Through this, awareness and strategic thinking in developing the digital society and digital economy have undergone marked shifts. Signature commodities such as wild forest honey, dried bamboo shoots, and Mường Nhé pineapples no longer depend entirely on price-squeezing middlemen, but reach consumers via e-commerce marketplaces including PostMart, Shopee, and TikTok Shop. The smartphone has emerged as a new means of production, functioning as an extended arm linking frontier production to broader markets.

During the first nine months of 2026, digital growth indicators registered impressive performance, with science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation contributing an estimated 16.5% to provincial GRDP. The added-value share of the digital economy in GRDP officially crossed the 16% threshold. The Data Infrastructure and Intelligent Operations project, capitalized at VND 328 billion, is being aggressively deployed to establish a state-of-the-art shared provincial data center.

Điện Biên is navigating a demanding journey along its digital transformation path. Topography remains fragmented, public investment resources are constrained, and every storm season threatens to sever connectivity lines. Yet amidst these trials, the humanistic core of modern governance shines brightest. The objective is not merely delivering advanced technology to favorable regions, but using technology to bridge developmental gaps that traditional methods could never level, ensuring that on the nation’s march into the digital era, no village and no citizen is left behind amid the misty mountain ridges.