VietNamNet Bridge – Small mobile networks are trying to increase their numbers of subscribers by launching service packages that fit the pockets of popular people. However, they have been warned that it will be not easy to do so,  especially when the market has become saturated, and bigger mobile networks themselves are also determined to expand their market share.

To date, S-Fone and EVN Telecom still cannot settle their problems to stabilize their operations. The EVN Telecom’s deal to sell shares to FPT is still under negotiation, while it seems that FPT is not very interested in the affair.

Meanwhile, S-Fone has said that it will release official information about its shift to operate under the mode of joint venture and about the choosing of strategic partners. Dau tu newspaper has quoted its source as saying that S-Fone’s strategic partner will be a domestic investor.

As for Vietnamobile, the network has launched a promotion program to attract more clients. Meanwhile, the information that its clients most anticipate is the when it will launch its 3G network. Vietnamobile once announced that it will launch 3G network in June 2010. However, after EVN Telecom announced the launching of its 3G network, Vietnamobile has left its own plan unsaid.

 After a long time of keeping silent Beeline has launched a program to transfer “beautiful” subscriber numbers to clients through SMS messages. The network operator has affirmed that with a profuse stock of numbers with the prefixes “0199” and “099” which are considered the “golden prefixes”, Beeline will satisfy all the demand of clients.

At first, analysts thought that the subscriber numbers with prefixes “099” would be selling like hot cakes on the market because Vietnamese people, especially superstitious businessmen, consider “099” a lucky number. However, sales agents have reported that the sim cards with prefixes have been selling rather slowly.

Huynh, the owner of a sim card sales agent in Hanoi, said that the sim cards officially appeared on the market in late 2010. However, the sale of the sim cards has not caught the attention from the public. “Sometimes I cannot sell any sim cards during the day,” he said.

Explaining the indifference of clients to the sim cards, the owner of a shop on Kim Ma street in Hanoi said that after launching the impressively cheap service package “Big Zero” in July 2009, the telecom network seems to have shrunk in competition.

While small networks have been reserved in releasing information about their business plans in 2011, big mobile networks’ operators all show their determination to expand their market share.

Le Ngoc Minh, President of VMS-MobiFone has said that MobiFone strives to get five million new subscribers in 2011 and obtain the turnover of 39 trillion dong.

Meanwhile, VinaPhone also hopes to get five million more subscribers to raise its total number of subscribers to 40 million. Viettel has not said exactly how many more subscribers it strives to have in 2011, but said that it would hold 45-48 percent of the mobile service market by the end of the year.

In the latest news, according to the General Statistics Office, by the end of February 2011, the number of telephone subscribers reached 172.6 million, increasing by 32.5 percent in comparison with the same period of 2010.

These include 16.5 million fixed line subscribers, an increase of 2.4 percent, and 156.1 million mobile subscribers, an increase of 36.8 percent.

C. V