Vietnam to become leading mobile market in Asia

Vietnam will become one of the largest mobile telephone markets in Asia, with an estimated 120 million subscribers by the end of 2014, according to Seeking Alpha, a New York-based website.

According to Seeking Alpha, Vietnam will also be one of the fastest growing markets as Vietnamese operators are expected to add 53 million subscriptions over the next five years, making it a potential boom market for 3G equipment vendors over the next few years.

Assuming 3G is available by the end of 2009, it is expected that the country will have approximately 43 million 3G subscribers, or 36 percent of total subscribers by 2014.

In early this month, the Vietnamese Ministry of Information and Communications awarded four licenses to five operators (one license was awarded to joint bidders). Three of the four licenses went to Viettel, VinaPhone and MobiFone - the largest operators in Vietnam which commanded approximately 85 percent of all subscriptions at year-end 2008. The last license was given to EVN Telecom and Hanoi Telecom, which jointly applied for 3G license.

Since its establishment in early 2004, Seeking Alpha has grown to be the top destination for stock market opinion and analysis on the Internet, and has widely been read by finance professionals and serious individual investors.

VOV, vietnamplus

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