VietNamNet Bridge – Only after a short time, Vietnam has been turned into a hi-tech rubbish dump of the world.

Another product which is in the state of “living death” is the public telephone cabins...

It is quite a surprise that Vietnam imports any available technologies and hi-tech products introduced in the world, no matter how luxurious they are, a technology expert spoke on Lao dong newspaper.

High technologies turn into rubbish

Ten years ago, many Vietnamese people were so proud of their pagers which were priced at millions dong at that time. Vietnamese service providers, despite knowing that the pagers had many shortcomings, still imported the products into Vietnam. As the result, the technology and its products “died young” just a short time after they arrived in Vietnam.

However, the “death” of Cityphone service was even more painful. VNPT once spent huge sums of money to import equipments to build up the technology infrastructure and terminals, hoping to develop Cityphone services. However, in September 2010, it had to officially admit the death of the technology and products. As the result, the technology infrastructure and hundreds of thousands of equipments have become mere rubbish to be disposed of.

Recently, telecom service providers have been rushing to import terminals and provide wireless fixed line services. VNPT provides G-Phone, Viettel provides HomePhone and EVN Telecom provides E-Com. The service providers bring terminals to rural and remote areas, give them to local residents, hoping that once people have terminals, they will use the services. However, the service providers have to pay heavy prices for their business strategy. Many households in rural areas had three fixed lines of the three telecom service providers, while they did not actually need them. As the result, after a short time, the households gave back the terminals.

Another product which is in the state of “living death” is the public telephone cabins. In Hanoi and HCM City, it is easy to find damaged and unused telephone cabins. According to Nguoi lao dong, it is estimated that thousands of such cabins can be seen in Vietnam.

The warnings

A foreign telecom expert arrived to Vietnam to survey the market. He was much surprised to see that 3G-technology products, USD Modem used for Internet connection, and luxurious iPhone and iPad all have appeared in the country. And he was even more surprised when realizing that the products are being used only as the tool to beautify their owners, while the users do not care much about technology.

“I am very surprised that Vietnamese people can spend more than 10 million dong to purchase the terminals, and they never use their functions. They just use the equipments to listen to music, play games or surf on Internet instead of using them as useful office tool,” he said.

That explains why many foreign telecom firms are eyeing Vietnam as a lucrative market.

Experts have advised telecom companies to think carefully before injecting money in new technologies. G-Phone, HomePhone, E-Com, and E-Phone have become dead, and experts have every reason to worry about 3G technology: the number of 3G subscribers is very modest.

Experts have also warned about the massive imports of low-cost mobile phones from China to Vietnam. It is clear that the products are not durable, meaning that the products will be thrown into the rubbish dump. The experts have called on government agencies to apply the policies to tighten hi-tech imports, or hi-tech products may have serious consequences.

P.V