Hanoi Times - Central and highland provinces did not suffer mobile network bottlenecks during the weeklong Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday for the first time thanks to operators’ prior efforts to upgrade networks.

A representative of state-run Mobifone said the number of local calls and text messages have been manageable due to the presence of its 1,000 transmitters in the areas.

Military-run Viettel, meanwhile, had raised its locally-based transmitters to 1,000 since late 2007.

Vinafone, another state-run operator, had established over 300 transmitters in crowded central and highland provinces, while reserving two mobile transmitters operating around the clock to handle network problems during the holiday.