VietNamNet Bridge - VinaPhone has launched a big sale promotion campaign, while Viettel plans to provide 4G services soon. All players have geared up for the competition in the new development stage, with Viettel considered the dominant enterprise.

VinaPhone has offered additional 100 percent of scratch card value to its prepaid subscribers in its biggest sale promotion campaigns in recent years. The move kicks off a new war among the three largest mobile network operators.

In fact, analysts all foresaw that VinaPhone would ‘do something soon’ after Viettel, with 52 percent market share, became the nation's dominant telecommunications firm, especially after Viettel mentioned its plan to provide 4G services in the time to come.

The military telecom firm affirmed that it will provide 4G services with features and utilities much higher than 3G, but at 3G fees.

Under current laws, businesses accounting for over 30 percent of the market share are required to register with the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) and guarantee that their prices are not lower than their costs. 

Businesses without significant market share, meanwhile, are allowed to introduce prices less than cost, as long as they are not too far below the average price in the market.

The move is described as an ‘underground tactic’ between the two large mobile network operators. One of them is a pioneer in providing new services, and the other has advantages in setting selling prices.

In fact, Viettel does not want to be treated as a dominant enterprise. It has often asked MIC to consider all three large mobile network operators as SMP firms (significant market power). 

It is foreseeable that Viettel will find it hard to compete with the others which are not under such pricing control.

An analyst commented that Viettel, with its pricing policies supervised by MIC, has switched its position from a companion to confronter to VinaPhone and MobiFone.

He said the three largest mobile network operators will enter a new stiff competition, in which VinaPhone and MobiFone have advantage over Viettel because they can determine their own pricing policies. 

Setting low service fees and launching sales promotion campaigns would be methods applied by the two network operators to compete with the military telco. 

Meanwhile, Viettel, in Vietnamese thoughts, has been positioned as the low-cost service provider.

However, Dr. Nguyen Ai Viet from the Hanoi National University’s Information Technology Institute, noted that Viettel has a competitive edge of its own.

“The pioneer always has great advantages,” he said, adding that MobiFone and VinaPhone would also have to provide 4G services soon. 

CV