VietNamNet Bridge – Unable to compete with rivals by lowering charges any further, mobile service providers have launched new services to increase the income.

Viettel has just announced the new feature of making payment for post-paid telecom service charges with prepaid cards. The representative of the big mobile service provider said the new feature can help clients save time in making payment for mobile service charges.

Besides Viettel, MobiFone has also allowed clients to make payment for telecom service charges with pre-paid cards via FastPay. Especially, the big guy has run sales promotion campaigns applied to the clients who use this method of payment.

In late June 2011, for example, MobiFone announced big preferences for the post-paid subscribers who make payment via FastPay. When using this payment method, MobiFone’s post-paid subscribers could get 100 percent of the cards’ values free, while there was no limitation in the number of cards used.

Not only allowing to use pre-paid cards to make payment for telecom service charges, mobile service providers have also been cooperating with payment gateways to push up the methods of non-cash payment. This has helped mobile service providers increase the utilities for subscribers, improve their competitiveness on the market, and increase the sources of income, which helps offset the low ARPU (average revenue per user).

Nguyen Hoa Binh, General Director of Peasoft, the owner of nganluong.vn payment gateway, said that the competition among mobile service providers in terms of service charges has led to the sharp decreases of charges. The service charges have bottomed out and they could not be lowered any further. Therefore, telecom companies have to seek new types of business which allow them to attract clients and earn more money from added value services.

According to Binh, nganluong.vn payment gateway of Peasoft has joined forces with the Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group (VNPT) to launch the service, which allows to use pre-paid cards to make online transactions. Of course, clients can also use the money on bank accounts to make online payment.

He went on to say that just within one month, since May 2011, the new payment channel of VinaPhone and MobiFone, the two members of VNPT, brought one billion dong in turnover to nganluong.vn.

Le Thanh Phu, Manager of the payment system of ZingPay, the payment gateway owned by VNG, said that at present, ZingPay still does not allow to pay with pre-paid cards, but it has joined forces with telecom companies to provide the service, allowing to pay via SMS to ZingPay operator.

With this method, ZingPay does not collect any fees from clients, while clients would see their money on mobile phone accounts deducted by the mobile network operators. The network operators would later share the revenue with ZingPay at the proportions agreed before between the two involved parties.

However, both Phu and Binh have said that despite the great efforts made by service providers, the payment methods carried out by online payment gateways and telecom service providers still have not caught big attention from clients. Meanwhile, making payment via banks or making payment in cash is still more prevailing than the newly launched payment methods.

“Though our service can bring convenience to clients and help them save time, the service has not been used much in Vietnam. It is mainly because of the consumption habit of clients,” Phu explained.

Also according to Binh, the payment revenue via banks is far higher than that via pre-paid cards, because banks remain an official payment channel with low fees. Meanwhile, if making payment via telecom companies, gateways may spend 15-60 percent of the total payment values.

C. V