Hanoi, Vietnam – Traditional voice calls are rapidly declining in popularity across Vietnam, increasingly supplanted by over-the-top (OTT) applications like Zalo, Messenger, and Viber, according to recent data and interviews with residents.
Thanh Hoa, a resident of Hanoi’s Bach Mai district, told VTC News she has ceased making traditional phone calls, opting instead for the messaging and calling features within these applications. “I only apply traditional voice calls when calling recent people or strangers whose phone numbers I don’t have,” Hoa explained. “Once I have their phone numbers, I also add them to the Zalo app for convenient communication in various ways, and especially to save the conversation information for uncomplicated retrieval later.”
This shift in communication habits is reflected in a significant decline in voice call traffic. During the 2026 Lunar New Year holiday – typically a peak period for phone calls – domestic voice traffic decreased by 17%, while international voice traffic plummeted by 40% compared to the same period last year, according to statistics from the Telecommunications Department of the Ministry of Science and Technology.
VNPT and Viettel, two of Vietnam’s largest telecommunications providers, reported average voice traffic decreases of 25% to 36% during Tet 2026 compared to normal days. VNPT recorded a 24.22% decrease compared to the same period in 2025, while Viettel saw a reduction of up to 62%. A previous report from the former Ministry of Information and Communications indicated a projected 17.2% decrease in domestic voice traffic during the 2025 Lunar New Year compared to 2024, signaling a continuing trend.
While voice call traffic is declining, data traffic is experiencing substantial growth. VNPT reported an 18.24% increase in data traffic during the recent Lunar New Year holiday compared to the previous year. International voice calls, utilizing data connections, increased by 67.82% compared to the period before the holiday and 31.06% compared to the same period last year. Viettel recorded a 40% increase in total 4G and 5G data traffic compared to the previous year, and a 10% increase compared to normal days.
Notably, 5G network traffic saw a dramatic surge, quintupling during peak hours compared to the 2025 Lunar New Year and increasing by 45% compared to normal days. 5G networks now account for 60% of total data traffic, a fourfold increase from the previous year. Average download speeds per user improved by 1.5 times, and 70% of customers are now utilizing high-quality voice services (HD calls) over 4G/5G networks, double the rate of the 2025 Lunar New Year.
The increasing demand for data services, social media, live streaming, and sharing photos and videos is driving this growth, as users continue to favor online communication methods over traditional voice calls.
