Big network operators prove to be more “indocile” | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

Big network operators prove to be more “indocile”

December 13, 2011 about Uncategorized

LookAtVietnam - As predicted, after Beeline, a small network operator,
launched the “billionaire service package”–a new war in the mobile call charges
has been kicked off. While Beeline has been told to stop the super-cheap
package, big guys have jumped on the bandwagon.

The state management agency has the right to “blow its whistle” asking network
operators to stop the activities that it believes the signs of unhealthy
competition. However, in some cases, its actions have no effect, if the network
operators are the “big cheeses”.
Meanwhile, small mobile network operators had to stop their sale promotion
campaigns immediately after they were instructed to do that.
“Small telecom companies prove to be more obedient to the instructions of the
Ministry of Information and Communication than the big ones,” an official of the
ministry commented on Thoi bao Kinh te Vietnam.
The words of the official partially can show the current situation of the
telecom market.
Three months ago, Beeline launched the “billionaire service package”, offering
low charges in an effort to attract more users. Under the sale promotion
campaign, when people bought a simcard priced at 20,000 dong, they would have
20,000 dong in their main account. Besides, Beeline would give 270,000 dong more
to the users’ account every day. As such, people need to pay 20,000 dong and
they would have one billion dong in account for use for 10 years. However, the 1
billion dong could be used only to make inner-network calls.
However, the super-cheap package has no more been available on the market, after
the Ministry of Information and Communication instructed Beeline to stop
providing the package. The ministry said that it can see the signs of dumping
the mobile call charges which will influence the market’s operation.
Meanwhile, right after Beeline’s program stopped, some big guys on the telecom
market have also launched attractive service packages with very low charges. As
predicted by experts, the telecom market is now witnessing a new mobile call
charges competition when the big guys jump on the bandwagon.
Viettel, the mobile network with the highest number of subscribers, has launched
Tomato Green package, offering the super-cheap charge of 50 dong per
call-minute. Tomato Green is being applied to new pre-paid subscribers and the
subscribers who are using Tomato, Sumosim packages activated since June 1, 2011.
Tomato Green has been applied since November and will last on January 30, 2012.
With Tomato Green, clients can make 150 free messages and enjoy the low charge
of 50 dong per minute for the inner-network calls from 10 pm to 12 pm and 500
dong per minute for the calls from 0 am to 5 pm every day.
However, Viettel’s Tomato Green proves to make nothing if MobiFone’s Alo 24/7
program applied from November 29 to December 10, 2011. The noteworthy thing is
that the mobile network does not run noisy ad campaigns on mass media, does not
introduce the new package on its official website. It only quietly sends
information to mobile subscribers.
With Alo24/7, MobiFone’s subscribers, when registering the package, can enjoy
free 80 inner-network minute calls, i.e the charges of 7500 dong for 130 minute
calls, 10,000 dong for 180 minutes, 15,000 dong for 300 minutes within the day.
As such, users just have to pay 50-60 dong per minute.
A manager of a telcom has raised a question that if the above said service
packages could be considered as dumping on the market and should the packages be
stopped, like the Beeline’s package.
Big network operators are the ones who hold big market shares with the numbers
of subscribers reaching tens of millions for each. Therefore, once they apply
big sale promotion campaigns, they would destroy the market structure, and the
impacts of their promotion campaigns would be even more serious than the ones of
small network operators.
Source: TBKTVN

Inner-network call package war anticipated | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

Inner-network call package war anticipated

November 12, 2011 about Uncategorized

LookAtVietnam - Undercurrent waves have been raised on the telecom
market. Telcos rush to offer big preferences for inner-network call packages in
order to attract more subscribers.

Right after Beeline’s “billionaire package” finishes on October 31, VinaPhone,
one of the three biggest mobile network operators in Vietnam, launched the “10
minute call” package with attractive preferences, applied to all VinaPhone’s
MobiFone’s and VNPT’s fixed line subscribers.
A representative of VinaPhone revealed that the launching of the service package
aims to retain subscribers.
The “Beeline’s effect”
The “billionaire package” and the super-cheap mobile phones launched into the
market by Beeline in the period between September and October, proves to be the
biggest wave on the mobile telecom market so far this year.
The promotion campaign activated by Beeline once drew the special attention from
the public, and Beeline’s services have become the choice of many families and
offices.
Hoang Hai Yen, an officer of a media company in Dong Da district in Hanoi, said
that she has bought 120 Beeline super-cheap mobile phones and simcards for all
the members of the company and her family members. Previously, officers of the
company used services of different mobile network operators, while they now only
use Beeline’s services.
The works of a media company require the staff to communicate with each other
regularly. Yen said that in the past, she had to spend 300,000 dong a month on
call charges. But now she has to pay 20,000 dong only.
“It is clear that the Beeline’s package is much cheaper than that of other
network operators,” she said.
Yen has also purchased 5 Beeline’s mobile phones for her family, saying that
since the mobile phones were put into use, the mobile phones using Viettel’s or
MobiFone’s services have been put idle.
In general, when mobile network operators launch super cheap packages in sale
promotion campaigns, they mostly target general school and university students,
while the preferences are only applied for a certain short time. Therefore, when
promotion campaigns finish, people would leave the network operators for others
and shift to use other more attractive packages.
However, Beeline applied a special policy for its sale promotion campaign. It
offered “super-cheap” fees to the subscribers with the subscription prefixes of
0993 and 0995 for a long period of 10 years. By doing so, Beeline not only can
attract new more users, but also retain clients for at least 10 years.
It is clear that the package has changed the habit of using mobile phones for
communication and has created “Beeline offices”. It is very likely that the
clients using the “billionaire package” would become a loyal subscriber of
Beeline, if the quality of Beeline’s services is okay.
The war in inner-network call packages begins
Like Beeline, Vietnamobile is considered one of the small mobile networks in
Vietnam. The biggest success of the network operator is the launching of Maxi
Talk package into the market which has helped attract a big number of
subscribers.
Maxi Talk of Vietnamobile allows people to talk all the day long with just 5000
dong. Maxi Talk, the backbone of Vietnamobile got the title “the most excellent
package of 2010” granted by the Ministry of Information and Communication.
According to Elibabete Fong, General Director of Vietnamobile, thanks to Maxi
Talk, after one year, the mobile network operator has attracted millions more
subscribers, who are students and office workers. By January 2011, the network
had attracted 10 million subscribers.
Meanwhile, Beeline’s number of subscribers has increased by nearly 400 percent
just after 1.5 months after it launched the billionaire package.
Experts believe that inner-network calls will bring more opportunities to small
network operators, while they do not have advantages in inter-network calls,
because it still depends on connection fee policies applied by different network
operators.
Source: TBKTVN

Father of Vietnam telecommunications: Le Hiep Tuyen

In 1984, Prof. Tuyen led a group of overseas Vietnamese to hold the first seminar introducing semi-conductor laser technology in telecommunication in Vietnam. Two years later a trial optical fiber network transmitting multimedia data made its debut
Prof. Tuyen was also in charge of setting up the first digital telecommunications operation, marking a milestone in Vietnam’s telecommunication history.

“Setting up digital telecommunication is a big deal, as Vietnam was suffering from an embargo at that time,” he said, adding that Western technology developers were not allowed to transfer their technologies or sell machines to Vietnam.

He returned to West Germany and managed to ship material to Vietnam.

Prof. Tuyen teamed up with the Hanoi and HCM City Technology University to create the very first sample for the project.

“I completed the project thanks to encouragement from the late deputy Prime Minister, To Huu, and former deputy Prime Minister Dong Si Nguyen, as well great cooperation with Professor Vu Dinh Cu,” Prof. Tuyen recounted.

Earlier, Tuyen was also assigned by the government to set up a network, which could transmit data from abroad to Vietnam News Agency.

He designed and produced the first digital telephone in Vietnam, as well as helping Sai Gon Giai Phong to modernize its publishing.

In 1988, his company in Berlin, VIBA GmbH, cooperated with Vietnam General Post Office to found Vietnam Telecommunications Company in HCM City, which became a leading telecommunications firm.

He has been a vice-principal of the Saigon Technology University since 2004.

Prof. Le Hiep Tuyen was born in 1950 in Da Nang City. He went to West Germany to study in 1968. He was among a few Vietnamese engineers carrying out research on optical cables and semi-conductor laser technologies for the telecommunication sector at Berlin Technology University. He became a manager of optical information research department of West Germany’s Krone. He was awarded his PhD at the age of 33.


VietNamNet/SGGP

Vietnam’s int’l call charges are region’s lowest

Thanks to the 50 percent discount offered by the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) last September, international call charges from Vietnam are lower than any other country in the region.


The group’s 2008 revenue increased 19 percent against over 2007, at more than 55 trillion VND (3.2 billion USD), even in the face of the current financial difficulties that are affecting the economy.

These figures were announced on Jan. 16 during a press conference in Hanoi by Bui Quoc Viet, director of the VNPT’s Information Centre.

During 2008, VNPT added 22 million subscribers to its list of phone users, increasing the number of its subscribers to 49 million.

The launch of Viet Nam ’s first satellite, Vinasat-1, into orbit in April 2008 was a breakthrough improvement in telecommunications infrastructure, helping local service providers, including VNPT, to expand their networks and services.

The telecommunications sector is expected to experience even tougher competition in 2009 when Vietnam opens the industry to foreign service providers, in line with its WTO commitments.

However, VNPT plans to increase its revenue during 2009 to around 60 trillion VND whilst making further reductions to call charges.

(Source: VNA)