VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese mobile service providers have been trying to launch more value added services in order to bring more facilities to customers. However, experts have warned that it will still be very difficult to develop the services until mobile service providers can sit together to discuss the cooperation.

VinaPhone, one of the three biggest mobile service providers in Vietnam, has launched a new service, MoMo e-wallet. The service aims to provide more options to mobile phone subscribers and help push up the non-cash economy. Pham Ngoc Tu, Head of the Business and Marketing Division of VinaPhone, said that the service is considered the “arm” of commercial banks, while it is not a service that competes with bank services.

With MoMo e-wallet, VinaPhone subscribers can make financial transactions anywhere and at any time via their mobile phones.

However, people have been warned that for the time being MoMo e-wallet can be used to pay in money for prepaid subscribers of VinaPhone and MobiFone, both companies belonging to VNPT (the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group).

Tu said that in theory, the service for subscribers of all mobile networks is accessible, but it will still depend on “technical conditions” and on the result of the negotiations to be conducted by VinaPhone and other mobile service providers.

Will VinaPhone be able to successfully negotiate with other mobile service providers in order to create best conditions for MoMo e-wallet users? The answer is that it is very difficult to negotiate, especially when mobile service providers are fiercely competing with each other.

The answer can be foreseen if looking into the service of providing mobile Internet connection though USB devices currently provided by mobile service providers. Telecom companies are providing the service under different names, such as Mobile Broadband (VinaPhone), Fast Connect (MobiFone), and DCom 3G (Viettel). However, clients can only use the service of a service provider if they purchase the device from the same provider.

Analysts say that the story of the establishment of a telecom enterprises’ association can also reveal a possible answer for the question raised above. In early 2010, the Ministry of Information and Telecommunication planned to complete necessary procedures to establish the Telecom Enterprises’ Association which was planned to debut in the second quarter of 2010. However, to date, the idea of such an association remains on paper. Though all telecom companies agree that it is necessary to set up an association that will help encourage the cooperation of enterprises and help settle the unhealthy competition among them, they have not made any move to speed up the establishment of the association.

The problem in the establishment of the association is the lack of a “conductor”. While other associations in the information technology all have “conductors”, it is still unclear who will lead the telecom association.

For example, the Vietnam Internet Association is chaired by Vu Hoang Lien, Director of VDC. VDC can lead the association because the enterprise is now holding 70 percent of the Internet service market share. VInasa, the association of software firms, is conducted by Truong Gia Binh, the well known leader of the Corporation for Financing and Promoting Technologies (FPT), the holding company of FPT Software which has been known as the leading software exporter in Vietnam. Meanwhile, with rivals of the same stature, it is very difficult to find out a conductor for the telecom association.

Source: Dau tu