Many countries are seeking to develop homegrown 5G technologies and platforms, to increase their influence in the global industry, to reduce their reliance on foreign (and often Chinese or US) technology, or to stimulate local companies and manufacturing. Such efforts by India, Japan, Turkey, the European Union and others are well-known, but Vietnam’s project has been less frequently discussed. In fact, Viettel – the country’s largest mobile operator – has been working with vendors on “indigeneous 5G” for some years and last week, the company’s High Tech division completed a field trial of the technology, with radio units powered by system-on-chip designs from AMD’s Xilinx FPGA unit. AMD acquired Xilinx last year and greatly increased its presence in the telecoms…