Vietnamese mobile users make less and less voice calls

According to data from VNPT and Viettel, average voice traffic during Tet 2026 decreased from 25% to 36% compared to normal days. If compared to the same period in 2025, VNPT recorded a decrease of 24.22%, while Viettel decreased by 62%.

From an overall perspective, the Department of Telecommunications – Ministry of Science and Technology said that traditional communication habits “continue to decline”, in which domestic calls decreased by 17% and international calls decreased by 40%. The reason is that users are shifting from voice calls to Internet-based forms of communication such as OTT messaging, video calling and interaction through social networking applications.

The downward trend does not only appear this year. During Tet 2025, voice traffic nationwide will decrease by 17.2% compared to Tet 2024, according to statistics from the (former) Ministry of Information and Communications.

In the early years of the mobile era, Lunar New Year was the peak time for voice services. Users at that time even had their calls interrupted due to network overload, especially on New Year’s Eve. However, in recent years, the situation has completely changed and statistics show that the habit of calling to wish Tet has gradually narrowed.

In the opposite direction, data traffic during Tet 2026 increased sharply compared to the same period last year. Viettel recorded a 92.8% increase in data consumption, while VNPT increased by 18.24% and MobiFone increased by 16.65%. Data services, social networks, and digital content are the main drivers driving growth. Demand for watching videos, using social networks, livestreaming, sharing photos and videos during the holidays remains high.

However, compared to normal days, data traffic during Tet tends to decrease slightly from 5% to 11%, because users stay at home more and connect to the Internet via wifi.

According to the Department of Telecommunications, the traffic shift trend of mobile services is “increasingly clear”. The Tet 2026 telecommunications picture shows a clear change in the usage behavior of Vietnamese users, when Internet-based services become the main communication and entertainment channel.