EVN cuts pole use fees for VNPT

After nearly two years of argument, Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) has agreed to reduce the fee it charges to lease use of electric poles to Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) by thirty to fifty percent.

In return, VNPT has agreed that EVN’s own telecoms subsidiary can share towers in some areas where EVN Telecom doesn’t yet have coverage.

The new fees are still two to three times higher than the fees in effect before 2008.

EVN had claimed that it must invest at least 4.5 million dong ($235) in every electric pole.  However, VNPT calculated EVN’s maximum cost per pole to be only 3.6 million dong ($190), and held that the maximum leasing fee that VNPT and other telecom firms should have to pay to get their broadband service to customers should be 15,000 dong/pole/month.

EVN said it will discuss the new fees with Viettel, Saigon Postel and other telecom firms.

vietnamnet

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