Viettel, Opera launch AppMarket

Viettel's mobile data subscribers can now download unlimited premium apps and games for a weekly subscription fee of VND10,000 (45 US cents), following the company's partnership with Opera to launch AppMarket.

AppMarket, an "all you can eat" app powered by the Opera Mobile Store, offers the best selection of popular titles from more than 300,000 apps and games for Android, Java, BlackBerry and Symbian users. All this is available for the lowest subscription fee in the market. This subscription model saves consumers a lot of money and effort compared with buying apps individually.

Subscribers can also purchase apps and games without using a credit card; they need only send an SMS or apply online at viettelappsclub.opera.com.

Viettel Telecom is the country's largest mobile operator, with 50 million subscribers.

VN, Japan sign MoU on IC

Viet Nam's Integrated Circuit Design and Education Research Centre (ICDREC) and the Japanese Nagano Techno Foundation signed a Memorandum of Understanding on microchips in HCM City on Tuesday.

The two sides will work together on designing and manufacturing microchips, training human resources, participating in common activities and exchanging information and scientific documents.

ICDREC has received much attention from Japanese partners after its participation at 2015 SEMICON Japan, an international exhibition for the microelectronics manufacturing industry held in Tokyo.

MobiFone introduces video services

The MobiFone Telecom-munications Corporation announced it will officially provide video data services.

The service will be introduced as an unlimited data package for MobiFone subscribers when accessing YouTube and FPT Play on mobile phones, smartphones and tablets.

When using video data, customers can watch videos without a limited speed even when their 3G packages run out of high-speed data access.

Samsung to open repair centre

The Vietnamese unit of Samsung Electronics has plans to open a repair service centre in the Southeast Asian country to fix or refurbish mobile phones and tablets from its users around the world.

The repair centre will also be in charge of fixing or renewing damaged or old components of Samsung mobile phones or LCD screens, Samsung Electronics Vietnam (SEV) said in a document sent to the General Department of Viet Nam Customs.

The damaged or old products will be shipped from overseas by Samsung's global partners, while Vietnamese firms will be contracted to work at the centre, according to the document.

"These Vietnamese companies can also be in charge of supplying necessary materials and spare parts," it added.

The document did not disclose where the repair centre might be located.

HCMC reports boom in online shopping

Online trading grew rapidly in HCM City last year, contributing a third of all e-commerce revenue in the country.

According to the municipal Department of Industry and Trade, the city has 92,910 commercial websites of which 80,000 carry on e-commerce. Of the latter, 23 per cent have applications for mobile phones.

Some of the most popular city-based shopping websites include Thegioididong, Lazada, Tiki, and 5 giay.

Shopping online has become very popular among Vietnamese, with the ratio of consumers who "know" about shopping online is 55 per cent, Tran Vinh Nhung, deputy director of the department, said.

To promote e-commerce, last year his department launched several programmes to support enterprises and organised several training programmes, he said.

Recently it presented the 2015 HCMC E-commerce Award to 10 outstanding businesses based on their efficiency.

They were Thegioididong Joint Stock Company, Saigon Tourist, Nguyen Kim electronics shopping centre, Tiki Corporation, Recess Company, Ltd, Zanado Corporation, DKT Technology, HotDeal, Lazada and CareerLink.

Nhung added that developing e-commerce is an essential trend in the digital era, and the new business model needs to be enabled to develop.

The department has launched an online shopping week from January 18 to 24 to inform consumers about sale promotions announced by companies in the city.

Households to get set-top TV boxes

More than 454,000 poor and near-poor households will receive set-top boxes, a meeting of the assistance sub-committee for the steering committee for digitising television plans was told on Thursday.

The information and communications ministry has appointed the Viet Nam Public-Utility Telecommunication Service Fund as the investor of the project, which will provide digital television set-top boxes to households.

The fund expects to complete the bidding process by April this year and install set-top boxes for 454,000 households that will be affected when Ha Noi, Hai Phong, Can Tho and HCM City switch off analogue signals.

According to new criteria decided by the government, an income of VND700,000 (US$31) per person per month in rural areas and VND900,000 ($40) per person per month in cities determines a household's poverty status.

Meanwhile, an income of VND1 million ($45) per person per month in rural areas and VND1.3 million ($58) per person per month in cities determines the near-poor status of a household.

According to the road map for switching off analogue signals, nine channels will be switched off in Ha Noi, Can Tho and HCM City from the beginning of March.

In addition, for continuous and effective communication of digitalisation plans to residents of the four above-mentioned cities and 19 neighbouring provinces, the assistance sub-committee asked related agencies to quickly submit plans to the ministry to enforce them in the near future.

Previously, many communication channels such as SMS and video clips and audio clips on television and radio were used, when analogue signals were switched off in a pilot project in the central Da Nang Province.

VNA/VNS