The Ministry of Information and Communication’s television digitalization board recently announced that five major cities, including Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, will switch to digital terrestrial television entirely by June 2014 at the latest.

The two cities, along with northern Hai Phong, central Da Nang and southern Can Tho cities received specific plans to digitalize their television networks.

The board also entitled local digital TV companies VTV, VTC and AVG to carry out the plan. It also decided to suspend analog TV services in Da Nang six months before scheduled to prepare for the digitalizing plan.

The board also urged the ministry to work out and submit to the Prime Minister a program which will supply public telecommunication services for 2014-2020. The program will serve as the basis to support the infrastructure for the digitalization project, including transmission, broadcasting and reception.

According to experts, though digitalizing television is a governmental policy designed to enhance television quality and save the country’s digital resources, it is in fact a costly, long-term process if television services are to go fully digital.

It’s estimated that local television viewers would have to pay a total of VND9,100 billion (US$433.6 mil) to buy new receiving devices, while television stations would also spend several trillion dongs on new transmitters.

There are roughly 18.2 million households with television sets in Vietnam. Among them, nearly 12.6 million are currently using antennas.

According to the project, by 2015 80% of households with TVs nationwide will gain access to digital TV, among which digital terrestrial TV is expected to account for roughly 55%.

The exorbitant costs mean that poor people will likely be deprived of access to television.

While television service providers are quite enthusiastic about the project, most locals remain indifferent, as the addition of new programs doesn’t quite make up for the extra expenses.