Vietnamese telecom firm Viettel has been fined VND109 million for violations it committed in supplying mobile telecom services, inspectors of the Ministry of Information and Communications said on February 25.

A Viettel staff introduces its service to a customer at its store - PHOTO: VIETTEL

Viettel was fined VND100 million for its act of accepting prepaid subscribers’ registration information from unauthorized telecom service suppliers. The group fell foul of regulations to sign deals with 29,800 non-Viettel suppliers to provide mobile telecom services and open transaction points in violation of Government Decree 49/2017/ND-CP.

In addition to the fine, the ministry’s inspectors asked Viettel to terminate the 29,800 contracts with these individuals.

Besides this, a fine of VND9 million was also levied on Viettel as the mobile carrier had completed transactions with subscribers who had the wrong kind of identification or identity cards and others whose registered names differed from their identification cards.

Apart from the two violations, Viettel had earlier provided eight channels --- VTV2, VTV3, VTV4, VTV5, VTV6, VTV8, VTV9 and CNBC --- during its application for a business license, violating Article 21 of the Government’s Decree 06/2016/ND-CP on managing, supplying and using broadcasting services.

However, during the inspection, the group completed its procedures and paperwork quickly and was then licensed by the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information. Therefore, the inspectors did not impose an administrative fine on Viettel for this.

The inspectors launched an inspection into Viettel from October 22 to December 21 last year.

SGT