VietNamNet Bridge – How to retain ADSL subscribers is a difficult question for service providers. The problem is that subscribers nowadays change service providers like they change clothes every day.

No exact figure about ADSL subscribers

VNPT (the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group) is now holding the biggest market share of 75-80 percent, while the remaining shares are held by Viettel and FPT Telecom. However, there is no exact figure about the number of Internet subscribers.

Statistics show that by the end of 2008, VNPT had had 1.7 million ADSL subscribers, FPT Telecom 330,000, and Viettel 400,000. By 2009, VNPT said it had had over 2.5 million subscribers, Viettel 530,000 and FPT 440,000. With the figures, VNPT still led the market, followed by Viettel and then FPT.

However, in the early 2010, FPT Telecom claimed that it had been holding more than 30 percent of the market share with nearly 400,000 ADSL subscribers. Meanwhile, Viettel said it was the second biggest service provider. As such, except VNPT, there is no reliable figure about the number of subscribers and the positions of Viettel and FPT Telecom. The Ministry of Information and Telecommunications provides only certain figures: there are 25.09 million Internet users (29.24 percent of the entire population), while the number of broadband subscribers is 3.38 million (3.95 percent).

Subscribers change service providers like they change clothes every day

Only VNPT still keeps a steady growth rate in the number of new subscribers, while Viettel and FPT Telecom are witnessing negative growth rate.

Viettel once strived to obtain 650,000 ADSL subscribers by the end of 2008. However, at this moment, it has 300,000 subscribers only.

Le Huu Hien, Deputy Director of Viettel Telecom, has confirmed the negative growth rate. It is partly because many subscribers have left, and partly because clients have shifted to using Dcom 3G, the mobile Internet broadband service. Hien said that the company is aiming to have more than one new subscriber for one subscriber left.

Chu Thanh Ha, General Director of FPT Telecom also said that the percentage of ADSL subscribers who left is relatively high at over 40 percent. Prior to that FPT Telecom calculated that about 20 percent of clients change service providers regularly - like they change clothes every day.

“It is really a headache that when two new clients come, one client leaves. The cost for us is very high,” Ha said.

Though VNPT still keeps a positive growth rate, it has also lost a lot of subscribers. VNPT Hanoi’s Director Tran Manh Hung said previously only 13 percent of subscribers left, while the figure has risen to 15 percent.

No opportunity for new service providers

The Ministry of Information and Telecommunications has granted more than 40 licenses to Internet service providers. However, recently, the ministry has released a series of decisions to revoke licenses, because many enterprises did nothing within two years of receiving one.

Analysts believe that in the context of the stiff competition, even if the ministry grants more operation licenses, there will be no opportunity for new ADSL service providers.

An executive of Viettel Telecom said that the investment rate for every ADSL subscriber is very big, and an unlucky investor would only make losses. The recent move by Viettel show that the corporation is now focusing on Dcom 3G service rather than trying to develop ADSL subscribers.

Thai Khang