Wartime loudspeakers to make Hanoi comeback

The move seeks to better manage public information broadcasting, the city People’s Committee said.

The decision follows the efficient use of loudspeakers in the past two years to spread information related to the fight against and prevention of Covid-19.

Hanoi’s typically noisy loudspeakers date back to the 1960s and 70s when they delivered air raid warnings during the U.S.-Vietnam War.

In August 2017, Hanoi kickstarted a plan to gradually switch its public communication methods from loudspeakers to modern internet devices, with then chairman Nguyen Duc Chung saying “loudspeakers have completed their mission.”

Most loudspeakers then fell silent in the downtown Hoan Kiem, Ba Dinh, Dong Da and Hai Ba Trung districts, replaced by a device called M-GATEWAY following a pilot project.

Any household seeking news updates can connect the device to their Wi-Fi network.

Pilot project results have yet to be announced, however.