VietNamNet Bridge - The three biggest mobile networks – Viettel, VinaPhone and MobiFone – now hold 95 percent of the Vietnamese mobile telecom market. However, small network operators believe there are still opportunities.

Despite big difficulties, Hutchison Asia Telecommunications and Hanoi Telecommunication Company have decided to pour $450 million more into Vietnamobile to maintain the network’s operation in Vietnam. 

The decision surprised analysts, who did not think the Hong Kong telco would stay in Vietnam following bad business performance. 

A report shows that the number of Vietnamobile subscribers had dropped from 15 million to 11 million by late last year.

The ‘Vietnamobile’ brand is associated with Elizabete Fong, the first managing director who took pains in designing the brand image for Vietnamobile with orange color, which symbolizes dynamism and good luck. 

The three biggest mobile networks – Viettel, VinaPhone and MobiFone – now hold 95 percent of the Vietnamese mobile telecom market.

However, both Fond and Garmen Shaw, the new managing director, could not make the brand more popular in Vietnam. 

Hutchison Asia Telecommunications is the only foreign investor which has stayed in Vietnam. Others have left. 

SLD telecom, a joint venture of SK Telecom, LG Electronics and DongA Elecom, for example, has left Sfone. Sources said Sfone was nearly no longer operational and has merged with another legal entity.

Meanwhile, Russian VinpelCom left Beeline, the network which was renamed G-Mobile.

An analyst commented that the opportunities for small networks are small, because they are dependent on the infrastructure developed by big telcos which dominate the market. 

Therefore, small networks focus on exploiting value-added services, while they don’t put high hopes on the development of subscribers.

The Vietnamese telecom market has become saturated with the number of mobile subscribers exceeding the population. 

Three biggest mobile networks hold 95 percent of market share with total revenue of VND360 trillion last year.

Therefore, analysts don’t think that the additional capital of $450 million injected by Hutchison into Vietnamobile would be able to remap the market. 

Sources said that G-Mobile is looking for new foreign investors.

With 50 percent of mobile subscribers using 3G service, 4G is believed to be the ‘new ocean’ for mobile network operators.

Thieu Phuong Nam, CEO of Qualcomm Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, believes that it is now the right time for Vietnamese mobile network operators to deploy 4G because the technology has become stable, while more than a half of terminal devices available in Vietnam support 4G. 

However, it would be difficult for small network operators to deploy 4G in Vietnam, especially when Vietnamobile still cannot cover 3G throughout the territory. The mobile network operator plans to exploit densely populated areas first. 


NCDT