Statistics from the Department of Information and Communications of Quang Tri province show that, up to now, out of a total of 529.18 km of local streets (including centrally managed roads, provincially managed roads and urban roads), only 98.66 km of routes have underground telecommunication cables, accounting for 18.6%.

The telecommunication cable system hanging in the residential area of ​​Ward 1, Dong Luong Ward is very messy and affects the urban beauty - Photo: BB

Previously, the province had a specific plan for undergrounding telecommunication cables in the locality, divided according to a specific roadmap. In Decision No. 1539/QD-UBND dated August 5, 2009 of the Provincial People's Committee on regulations for undergrounding information cables in Quang Tri province, specifically from 2011 - 2013, 41 routes with a total length of 59.85 km were underground.

In Plan No. 74/KH-UBND dated April 8, 2021 of the Provincial People's Committee on undergrounding, renovating, and tidying up information cables in the period of 2021 - 2025 in Quang Tri province, there are 7 underground routes, with a total length of 17.81 km.

Recently, telecommunications business units such as VNPT Quang Tri, Viettel Quang Tri, Mobifone Quang Tri have implemented undergrounding of telecommunications cables on streets. Accordingly, VNPT has undergrounded 50.54 km, reaching 84.4% of the plan; Viettel Quang Tri has undergrounded 23.4 km, reaching 39% of the plan; Mobifone has undergrounded 3.84 km, reaching 6.4% of the plan. The sewer and tank infrastructure invested by VNPT Quang Tri and Viettel Quang Tri on streets has reached about 60%.

According to the assessment of the Department of Information and Communications, the sewer and tank infrastructure of the units is not synchronous and not suitable for subleasing to develop services for customers. Undergrounding can only be done for telecommunication transmission cables and main cables. For subscriber cables, when connecting to customers, they still have to be pulled and hung on electric poles.

The cost of renting underground infrastructure for information cables is still high compared to the revenue and profit of the enterprise, so some enterprises do not have enough capacity to rent the infrastructure but use the cable hanging method with lower cost and faster implementation. The planning and use of urban infrastructure is not synchronous, and there is no public announcement for units and telecommunications enterprises that need to build and use the infrastructure to know and coordinate the implementation of telecommunications infrastructure construction.

It can be seen that the undergrounding of telecommunication cables still faces many difficulties and obstacles. Therefore, sectors such as construction, transportation, electricity, water supply and drainage, telecommunications, and localities when planning, renovating and upgrading urban areas need to prioritize the allocation of development investment capital and other legal capital sources to invest in synchronous technical infrastructure.

On the other hand, businesses need to continue to propose to corporations and general companies to prioritize budget allocation for renovating and burying telecommunication cables, dismantling and recovering unused cables, ensuring urban aesthetics and safety for traffic participants.

Aquarius