VietNamNet Bridge – The Vietnam ICT Press Club on December 27 released the 10 information and communication technology (ICT) events in 2012 selected by 40 journalists.

PM says Vietnam needs to have at least three network operators

On July 31, 2012, the Prime Minister approved the strategy on the national telecommunication development by 2020, which says that in every important telecom service, there must be at least three service providers in order to ensure the healthy competition of the markets.

The strategy also said that Vietnam would reorganize telecom groups, so as to form up 3-4 powerful general corporations or economic groups in the sector.

This would lead to the unavoidable restructuring of VNPT (the state owned Vietnam Telecommunication Group). It’s still unclear about the fates of VinaPhone and MobiFone, the two of the three biggest mobile network operators in Vietnam, both belonging to VNPT.

Beeline quits Vietnam

Vimpelcom officially ran away from Vietnam in April 2012 after bargaining away its stakes in Beeline network for 45 million dollars to GTel Mobile. The decision was made after the Russian partner in the telecom joint venture realized that it would not have any opportunities in the Vietnamese market.

On September 17, 2012, GTel Mobile officially announced a new brand – Gmobile which replaced Beeline in Vietnam. Since then, Gmobile has been meeting a lot of difficulties in developing new subscribers.

MB 24 appropriated 700 billion dong by selling virtual kiosks

Tens of managers of Muaban24 were arrested for investigation stirred up the public. The case caught the special attention from the public, because this was a “high technology crime,” while the victims were all low income earners. Some of them never used computers before in their lives.

After one year of operation, the network has had 100,000 virtual stalls and collected 700 billion dong from the sale of the stalls.

Communist Part’s resolution considers IT the national infrastructure

The Resolution No. 13 affirmed that ICT is considered the “infrastructure of the national infrastructure.”

The resolution shows Vietnam’s determination to develop the country with the information and telecommunication technology.

Prior to that, the government Instruction No. 58 also said that Vietnam would develop into an IT power in the world.

Vinasat 2 successfully launched

The satellite was successfully launched into the orbit on May 16, 2012. The project has the investment capital of 280 million dollars, 80 percent of which is the loans and the other 20 percent is the reciprocal capital from VNPT.

It is expected that the investor can take back the investment capital in 10 years, while the other 5-6 years would bring profits.

Viettel outstrips the big guy VNPT in revenue

The race of the two giants began in 2010, when VNPT announced the revenue of 100 trillion dong for the year, while Viettel 91 trillion dong. In 2011, both of them got 120 trillion dong in revenue. However, Viettel’s profit was higher at 20 trillion dong, while VNPT 10 trillion dong.

Finally, Viettel has left VNPT behind when it got 140 trillion dong in turnover and 27 trillion dong in profit in 2012. As such, Viettel’s profit was triple that of VNPT.

MIC collects network connection fee from pre-paid subscribers

From January 1, 2013, mobile phone subscribers would have to pay the network connection fee of 25,000 dong (for prepaid subscribers) and 35,000 dong for post paid ones.

S-Fone dismissed nearly all workers

S-Fone is dragging out its miserable existence after incurring big losses and losing subscribers. A lot of workers of the company have been dismissed, while they have not received salaries and allowances.

Royalty collected from downloading digital music

Since November 1, 2012, all the music websites in Vietnam began charging fees on downloads, while online low quality music remains free.

However, the fees collected reportedly remain modest, because Vietnamese have got used to free music and they don’t intent to pay for services.

Auctioning for mobile frequency is a must

The decision made in March 2012 showed the determination of the watchdog agency to manage the frequencies in accordance with the transparent market rules, not with the “ask-and-grant” mechanism.

Binh Minh