VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese feel happy when Vietnamese telcos have reached a consensus in the pricing policy on international call charges. However, a new worry has been raised that the number of illicit international calls would increase.

Higher consensus level leads to higher income

The efforts by the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) and the determination by telcos to increase the charges on foreign partners for incoming calls to Vietnam have brought high profits to the market. The new pricing policy has brought 1.6 trillion dong a year, or 75 million dollars, more to Vietnam.

In September 2012, Vietnamese telcos collected 2.6 US cent per minute from foreign partners, though the floor price set up by the ministry was 4.1 cent. However, in early 2011, they charged 4.1 cent per minute and have begun collecting 5.1 cent per minute.

A senior executive of a telco said the average charge being applied in the world is 10-12 cent per minute. As such, though Vietnamese service providers have double the charges, the levels remain “modest” if compared with the world’s level.

An official of MIC also said a foreign consultancy firm told MIC that the charges could be raised to 10-12 cent per minute.

It is estimated that 3 billion minutes worth of international calls are dialed to Vietnam each year. As such, if the fee is raised to 10 cent per minute, it would have hundreds of millions of dollars additionally a year.

However, the consultancy firm has warned that if the fees are overly high, Vietnam would fail to implement the fee increase plan, because people would make calls using free software like Skype or Viber. This would be very easy in Vietnam, where free wi-fi is available everywhere.

A senior executive of CMC, a telecom group, said in the past, when telcos charged 2.6 cent per minute only, which was nearly equal to the production cost, illicit calls did not exist. However, as the fee has been raised to 5.1 cent per minute and it would be raised further, illicit calls would return.

He said the state management agencies need to anticipate this to apply the drastic measures to tighten control over telecom activities.

However, some experts said there’s no need to worry about that, saying that it is more difficult to transfer illegal international traffic to Vietnam over public networks, once Vietnam has tightened the pre-paid mobile subscribers. Under the current regulations, each telco must not issue more than 100 types of simcards. This makes experts believe that preventing illicit calls is within reach.

Good cooperation would bring money

Though telcos have unanimously raised the international call charges, no one can say for sure if they would break the agreement one day.

The market international call charges now depend on the two big guys Viettel and VNPT after the two big guys control the market shares of small firms by controlling the connection of the small firms to their infrastructure systems.

In principle, this work should be undertaken by a telco association in charge of allocating works to telcos. However, in the current circumstances, there has bene no better choice.

Especially, telcos have urged MIC to apply more drastic measures to control the call charges. In the worst cases, telcos would have licensed revoked, if they violate the agreements among telco service providers.

In the current conditions, Viettel and VNPT hold 80 percent of the market share, while the other 20 percent would belong to FPT, CMC and Hanoi Telecom. Some others have left the market for some reasons.

Buu Dien