VietNamNet Bridge - The increasingly high demand for traveling abroad and the Vietnamese habit of using the internet have prompted technology firms to provide a new service – leasing wi-fi to outbound travelers.

In the past, Vietnamese, when traveling abroad, could only access internet through two ways – either through free wi-fi, or using services provided by local network operators. 

In fact, there was also a third way – using a data roaming service provided by Vietnamese telcos. However, very few travelers chose this service because of the high fee.

Travelers, for example, if using Viettel’s data roaming service in Asia, had to pay VND64,500 for one Mb. Meanwhile, MobiFone charged VND230,000. With such a sky-high service fee, one would have to accept to pay millions of dong to surf on internet.

Therefore, the most popular way Vietnamese travelers chose in the past was buying simcards from local network operators.

However, they now have another reasonable choice – renting wi-fi. Two first service providers have appeared in Vietnam – A&H Telecom which provides Wifi Quoc Te and Laxgo Now Vietnam which provides Laxgo services.

According to A&H Telecom, travelers just need to rent a mobile wifi router at fixed fee to be able to bring it during their trips and share the wifi network with a group of five users. 

The increasingly high demand for traveling abroad and the Vietnamese habit of using the internet have prompted technology firms to provide a new service – leasing wi-fi to outbound travelers.

The solution is expected to be more convenient and cheaper than using simcards in destination countries. 

What users need to do are bringing the rent router, turning it on and accessing to internet via the wifi from the router. 

The service has been prospering though it has just appeared in the market. Jennifer Moke from Laxgo Now Vietnam said the number of the company’s customers increases by 100 percent a month.

Laxgo Now Vietnam, whose holding company is located in Singapore, said Vietnam would be the focus in 2017. Vietnam’s strong economic development with more and more budget airlines opening more air routes to foreign markets brings opportunities to service providers like Laxgo Now Vietnam.

In Japan, where there is no free wifi, travelers have to rent pocket mobile wifi from CDJapan, Econnect Japan and Global Advanced Communications. In Vietnam, there are some firms which rent wifi routers to travelers to Japan, such as DigiTel.

Meanwhile, there are only two firms which can satisfy the demand of accessing internet in many different countries. Wifi Quoc Te provides wifi routers to use in 80 countries and territories, while Laxgo 60.  While the former has advantages in Hanoi, Laxgo dominates the southern market.

Jennifer Moke said the Vietnamese market has high potential with each Vietnamese using 10-15 GB in internet capacity every month while the figure is increasing.