VietNamNet Bridge – Both the mobile virtual network operators Dong Duong Telecom and VTC still cannot officially provide services, even though they received operation licenses more than one year ago.

 
In early 2010, when signing the strategic partnership agreement with the Electricity of Vietnam EVN, VTC announced that it would begin providing services in June 2010. At that time, Nguyen Hoang Phong, Director of VTC Digicom, a subsidiary of VTC, which is in charge of implementing the agreement signed between VTC and EVN also affirmed that VTC would develop creative content services in order to be able to compete with the service providers with network infrastructure.

 

However, until now, the promise by VTC has not come true.

 

Meanwhile, when  Dong Duong Telecom got its operational license in August 2009, it also promised that it would begin providing services in the first quarter of 2010. However, to date, customers still cannot use Dong Duong Telecom’s services. Dau tu newspaper has quoted its sources as saying that Dong Duong Telecom will only be able to launch its services by mid 2011.

 

One of the biggest problems that forced MVNOs to break promises is that the need to reach agreements on sharing wireless network infrastructure with the service providers with network infrastructure. Dong Duong Telecom will share the same wireless network with Viettel, while VTC with EVN Telecom.

 

However, insiders believe that the most important factor that led to the tardiness is that the new service providers still cannot identify specific services to develop. This means that they need to focus on certain groups of clients and pay attention to and take care of clients. A service provider with network infrastructure, who asked to be anonymous, said that in order to compete with service providers with network infrastructure, ss need to find suitable market segments to develop. If MVNOs, the newcomers on the market, cannot find the things which differentiate them with other service providers, and continue to have to “live on” the network infrastructure of other service providers, they will not have many opportunities to exist or develop.

 

By the end of 2010, Vietnam’s mobile telecom market had had 154 million subscribers.  90 percent of the subscribers are clients of Viettel, MobiFone and VinaPhone. As such, the door of the mobile telecom market is just narrowly open for MVNOs. Analysts comment that MVNOs cannot follow Beeline or Vinamobile by launching shocking service packages with surprisingly low charges. The mobile service fees at this moment are dangerously close to production costs. MVNOs also cannot quickly develop the number of pre-paid subscribers because of the limited repository of numbers.

 

Dong Duong Telecom, for example, has been allowed to develop subscribers’ numbers with the prefixes of số 0998xxxxxx and 0999xxxxxx. This means that it can develop two million subscribers at maximum. Moreover, the average revenue per user ARPU of prepaid subscribers is much lower than post-paid subscribers.

 

As mobile service providers who do not have their own network infrastructure, MVNOs will operate by sharing infrastructure with service providers who have a license to set up telecom network infrastructure. MVNOs will buy the capacity of service providers with network infrastructure at wholesale and then retail to clients. MVNOs are allowed to issue their simcards, build up the systems to calculate charges, to manage clients and build up value added services under their brands.

 

In related news, Buu dien newspaper has announced the result of a survey on 3200 mobile phone subscribers in Hanoi and HCM City. MobiFone is considered the service provider who can provide the best quality service with 3.92/5 marks, while Viettel 3.85 and VinaPhone 3.83 marks. Smaller networks Beeline got 3.75, S-Fone 3.75, Vietnamobile 3.73 and EVN Telecom 3.32 marks.

 

Source: Dau tu