Vietnam Ministry to limit the number of simcards per person (Vietnam)
The Ministry of Information and Communications will permit each person to register a maximum of 18 simcards from mobile network operators, according to a report by VNS.
As per the report, the draft of a circular on managing pre-paid mobile phone subscribers reveals that if one person wants to have more than three simcards, he/she must register with another mobile phone network operator. So, one person would register a maximum of 18 simcards from six mobile network operators.
The six operators are Viettel, VinaPhone, MobiFone, S-Fone, Vietnamobile and Beeline. The development is considered a tough measure to closely manage pre-paid mobile phone subscribers.
Nguyen Dinh Chien, deputy general director, MobiFone, the third largest mobile network operator, said that mobile simcards were used in many devices such as USBs of 3G generation, notebook computers and mobile phones. Therefore, the State should increase the maximum numbers of simcards owned by each person to five units.
Nguyen Viet Dung, deputy general director of Viettel Telecom, agreed and said the demand was surely more than three simcards for each person.
The report reveals that the draft of the circular will permit one enterprise to register a maximum of 100 simcards. The regulation is expected to restrict enterprises from registering too many simcards to sell on the market. At present, there is a service provided by individuals that a normal subscriber can change to be a student subscriber even if they are not students to get cheaper mobile phone service charges.
Vietnamese Operator looking for outside Investor
Vietnam’s Saigon Post and Telecommunications Corporation (Saigon Postel) is looking for investors to help develop its CDMA based mobile network subsidiary, S-Fone. The company is looking to sell 20%-30% stake to potential investors.
S-Fone is a joint venture between Saigon Postel (80%) and South Korea’s SK Telecom (20%).
According to Ho Hong Son, Saigon Postel’s general director, the scheme of changing the form of the company’s investment into a joint venture was approved by the Government. The company would buy back SK Telecom’s 20% stake in the next two years.
As per Son, during this period, Saigon Postel also planned to seek new investors and sell 20-30% of its stake to investors who are financially strong and well-managed. Vietnam law allows foreigners to buy stakes of up to 49% in privatized firms.
Saigon Postel to operate S-Fone after SK Telecom’s withdrawal (Vietnam)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Saigon Postel will operate Vietnamese mobile operator S-Fone from the middle of this year after the withdrawal of the Korean partner SK Telecom. The business cooperation contract has been changed into joint venture operation by SK Telecom and Saigon Postel.
According to managing director Ho Hong Son, SK Telecom will be a shareholder in the new JV after the proposed change and Saigon Postel will manage the network.
Before 2011, the Korean partner will only hold a minority stake in the JV and capital invested by SK Telecom will be returned by Saigon Postel.
Further investments in Vietnam cancelled by SK Telecom
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Low profit and low subscriber growth made ¬South Korea’s SK Telecom to cease investing in its Vietnamese subsidiary. However, the company’s S-Fone partnership with Saigon Post andTelecommunication Corporation (SPT) will remain intact but S-Fone’s plans to deploy a 3G network will be endangered by the move.
An agreement to convert the cooperation into a formal joint venture is reported to be linked to the decision. This will be followed by selling a stake to South Korea-based private equity fund, Rutter Associates. With around 2.5 million customers by the end of last September, the operator has a market share of just 2.5%.
SK Telecom, Samsung in handset tie-up
South Korean carrier SK Telecom and Samsung Electronics have established a strategic alliance promising mutual cooperation in the domestic and overseas markets. Under the partnership, Samsung Electronics, which has already supplied the Drift handset to Helio, will release additional Samsung mobile phones to SK Telecom’s mobile operation in the US in 2007. It will also be introducing Samsung mobile phones through SK Telecom’s S-fone in Vietnam.The two companies have further decided to cooperate in diverse areas in the domestic market next year, such as on satellite DMB phones. They agreed on supplying 3 million units of approximately twenty models domestically and overseas next year.
