Vietnam’s two of the three leading telcos Viettel and Vinaphone proved winners during the three-month trial period of offering the mobile number portability (MNP) service to customers, while Mobifone struggled to keep customers, according to Vietnam Telecommunications Authority (VNTA).

Starting from November 16, 2018 to February 13, 2019, postpaid subscribers of Viettel, Vinaphone, Mobifone and Vietnamobile will be able to switch between mobile carriers while retaining their existing phone numbers. Gtel is the only carrier that did not join the pilot program.

During the trial period, over 25,587 Mobifone’s subscribers decided to transfer their numbers to other carriers, 2.5 times higher than the number of subscribers from other carriers expected to join Mobifones, at 9,940. 

Meanwhile, the amount  of subscribers porting their numbers to Viettel and Vinaphone was higher than the amount of subscribers who left the networks, standing at 49,961 and 33,438 in the case of Viettel, 35,688 and 28,451 in the case of Vinaphone. 

Vietnamobile had 816 subscribers coming in and 5,929 switching to other networks. 

Notably, Mobifone has the second lowest successfully switching rate of 23.09% or 6,906 cases, after Vietnamobile with 6.5% or 386, significantly lower than those recorded by Viettel at 83.56% (27,941) and Vinaphone 68.28% (19,425). 

By the end of October 2018, Vietnam had 130 million mobile subscribers, of whom postpaid subscribers made up 5% of the total or 6 million. 

The MNP services was applicable to all cellphone users as of January 1, 2019. 

Hanoitimes