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Telecom charges seen declining further
Mobile phone services will become more affordable as many carriers are in the race to cut charges to attract more customers.
Bui Quang Tuyen, deputy director - of Viettel Telecom, told the Daily on the phone that charges would decline strongly after the Ministry of Information and Communication released a new fee range in mid-July, which encourages carriers to reduce charges.
Tuyen said Viettel was considering a plan to cut fees after MobiFone and Vinaphone slashed charges early this month.
The ministry allows mobile carriers to decide to decrease fees by 40% for post-paid subscribers and 50% for pre-paid subscribers. For calls in the same network, the fee is down up to 80% after peak hours and charges for calls between MobiFone and Vinaphone networks are slashed up to 90% in low traffic time.
With the latest moves by MobiFone and Vinaphone, Tuyen of Viettel told the Daily that his company would also consider lowering fees to remain competitive.
"We are mapping out a charge reduction plan for submission to the ministry. At present, Viettel is running many promotion campaigns for mobile users on the occasion of National Day (September 2)," he said.
Post-paid subscribers will be charged only VND500 per minute for same-network calls during low traffic hours until September 9. Viettel will also trim international calling fees from VND8,000 to VND3,600 per minute.
Viettel will target customers in remote and rural areas by offering free phones and simcards.
Tuyen said the customer base in major cities had been saturated, so the mobile carrier was shifting focus to potential clients in rural and remote regions.
CDMA mobile carrier S-Fone has also announced to reduce charges by 30-40% next month.
Deputy Minister of Information and Communication Le Nam Thang said recently that mobile charges would decrease strongly by the year-end.
"The numbers of mobile users and carriers have increased strongly in recent years, thus causing fees to fall," Thang explained.
Four or five years ago, he said, Vietnam's mobile charges were higher than in other Southeast Asian countries because the market was dominated by one or two telecom providers like VNPT.
Since monopoly was lifted, many mobile carriers have joined the sector, bringing about strong competition which has in turn forced companies to lower fees to gain a competitive edge.
Given the Ministry of Information and Communication's approval for further fee reductions, mobile services will become cheaper and more accessible, he said.
Tuyen also conceded that clients would see telecom charges dropping gradually because providers needed to lure more clients.
Viettel now has over 20 million customers, the biggest number in the country, he said.
A recent Ministry of Information and Communication report says telecom charges have fallen 15-20% annually and are now equivalent to levels in other Southeast Asian markets.
A mobile subscriber monitor released in May by the ministry shows the country has around 48 million mobile service users, with Viettel making up the biggest share with 19.5 million customers, 41% of the total.
Viettel is followed by MobiFone with 13.4 million and Vinaphone with 12.1 million.
The country has seven mobile service providers, namely Viettel, MobiFone, Vinaphone, S-Fone, EVN Telecom, HT Mobile and G-Tel, with the last receiving an investment license in July.
VNN
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