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.
Natcom launches mobile services (Haiti)
Haiti based network operator Natcom, a joint venture between Vietnam’s Viettel and the Haitian government, has officially opened its services to the public. According to reports, Natcom claims to have already signed up 250,000 mobile subscribers in a one-month trial offer ahead of its commercial launch. Further, sources claim that the arrival of Natcom in the telecom market has caused a reduction of 20% in mobile tariffs.
As per reports, Nguyen Manh Hung , Viettel’s deputy CEO said at a launch ceremony that Natcom’s next goal is to expand the fibre network to every area of Haiti, whilst Haitian president, Michel Martelly declared that the 3,000km cable that Natcom developed will contribute to a revolution in the telecommunications sector in this country.
Mobile operator chooses Ericsson for optimizing its mobile broadband traffic (Vietnam)
Mobifone is a mobile network operator based in Vietnam. It chose Ericsson for facilitating optimized bandwidth and mobile broadband traffic in a combined manner.
In the wake of a recent partnership featuring Vantrix, the video solutions provider and Ericsson, Mobifone stands to efficiently manage and also optimize video content delivery over its mobile network.
According to Le Ngoc Minh, Chairman of Mobifone, because of limited fixed network availability, they are confident that Vietnamese people will view more video on their mobile devices than their PCs. In addition, given the explosive demand for high-quality mobile video, they wanted a solution that could help decrease the transmission costs whilst providing an enhanced real-time viewing experience and faster downloads for the users.
On one hand, the size of videos are considerably reduced by the Bandwidth Optimizer provided by Vantrix while monitoring network congestion as well, and then the Multiservice Proxy (MSP) provided by Ericsson simplifies the network architecture on the other. This way, the mobile operator is said to save as much as up to 70 percent in terms of operating and upgrade costs of the network.
According to sources, there are just over 33 million customers served by Mobifone as on end of June that represents close to 29% market share.
The VNPT Group wholly owns Mobifone.
Networks want 3G deposits redemption before time (Vietnam)
There are four 3G network operators in Vietnam. They are looking at an early repayment of their license fee deposits so as to aid themselves in rolling out funds for the deployment of their respective networks.
Viettel, VinaPhone, MobiFone, and the EVN Telecom/Hanoi Telecom joint venture constitute the group of networks that are looking to deploy 3G; having deposited a collective amount of $391.87 million to the government as license fees; to be refunded once the respective 3G networks are deployed. Although Viettel, Vinaphone and MobiFone have had 50% of their deposits repaid to them, they are pushing for an early redemption of the remaining amounts.
As per sources, the 3G networks are experiencing a cash crunch in their attempt at expanding their networks. They are betting on license fee deposits repayment to fund the building of their respective 3G network infrastructures.
30,334 BTS stations for 3G services constitute the collective number, built by the network operators while close to 8 million customers have been signed up so far.
A Viettel official has been reported to have said that 80 per cent of the funds for rolling out 3G services were financed by way of bank loans; as it waits for its share of deposit repayment.
The Department of Planning has been advised by the Minister of Information and Communications, Le Doan Hop to step up the disbursement for 3G service projects.
VNPT submits 3 reorganization plans (Vietnam)
VNPT (Vietnam Post and Communication Group) has submitted three different plans to the government to comply with the new ownership rules.
New rules came into effect from 1 June that restricts ownership in telecommunications firms. A company that owns over 20% of equity in one telecommunications firm cannot also own more 20% in another telco, and VNPT fully owns VinaPhone and MobiPhone.
According to reports, the first plan will see VinaPhone and MobiFone merge, the second plan proposes to privatize one of the two mobile operators, and the third plan will see the whole group restructuring.
HTC inaugurates showroom in Hanoi (Vietnam, Taiwan)
HTC, which is a Taiwanese handset maker, has inaugurated its first showroom in Vietnam. The showroom is sited in the Pico Mall in Hanoi.
The company is planning to open further showrooms in large cities in the future.
VinaPhone launches payments with MoMo (Vietnam)
VinaPhone, which operates in Vietnam, has expanded its bill payment options with the launch of MoMo electronic wallet.
The MoMo wallet enables users to pay for VinaPhone bills through their mobile phone. VinaPhone is also planning to launch more applications for the service to meet demand for electronic payments for the 30,000 customers now using the MoMo electronic wallet.
Beeline Vietnam offers Facebook SMS
Beeline Vietnam has introduced a Facebook SMS service. Subscibers can now use the service to update their status, send a wall posts, send messages, as well as other functionality via SMS.
Every single SMS to the service will be charged at US$0.01.
Viettel to set up tsunami warning system in 28 provinces (Vietnam)
Viettel, which is a Vietnamese military-owned telecommunications company, will be cooperating with coastal provinces and cities to set up a tsunami warning system.
According to reports, Viettel earlier established ten warning locations in Da Nang and successfully tested them earlier this month. The company will now work with 28 coastal provinces and cities to survey locations for establishing further warning systems.
LTE inaction in Vietnam as operators ignore licences
Although LTE licences were awarded to seven Vietnamese operators in Q3 2010, five of these operators have thus far made no attempt to launch 4G services – in fact, one has not even attempted to obtain the paperwork for its licence from the country’s regulator.
A local newspaper printed a source claiming that “most of the companies have taken no actions towards providing 4G services, though they got the licences a long time ago.” The only two operators to have initiated their rollouts are Viettel, which is owned by the country’s military, and VNPT, which owns the operators Mobifone and Vinaphone.
The capital Hanoi has been the main focus of LTE deployments, with VNPT installing 15 base stations in the city. While Viettel has partnered with Huawei to begin deploying infrastructure in the capital, it has also begun its rollout in Ho Chi Minh City.
The other five operators to be awarded preliminary LTE licences were EVN Telecom, CMC Telecom, GTel, Vietnam Multimedia Corporation (VTC), and FPT Telecom. Licences expire after just one year; since they were distributed in September 2010, all five could reach the end of their validity without being used.
While Viettel recently celebrated the “successful testing” of its LTE equipment, it is unlikely to begin offering services – which will include video streaming and conferencing as well as HD video calls - until at least 2014.
