Mobile carrier VinaPhone has marketed its new app VietTalk to provide customers with more options for calling and texting via the Internet.

VietTalk is the third OTT (over-the-top) service provided by a Vietnamese enterprise after Zalo of VNG and Btalk of Bkav. It works like other OTT services in terms of calling, texting, voice and multimedia messages and group chat.

Like other OTT apps, VietTalk can be installed in all smartphones connecting to mobile phone networks in the country. VietTalk users will have to pay for the service while users of other OTT apps do not pay for the app service but are still subject to 3G or GPRS charges.

The difference of VietTalk is that VinaPhone subscribers will be free from 3G or GPRS charges if they use this app to make calls and send text messages to others using the new service.

If VietTalk users send messages to VinaPhone subscribers who do not have the app, they will have to pay VND120 per message, and VND300 will be charged for each message sent to subscribers of other networks.  

VietTalk users will not have to pay for calling within the community but VND720 per minute for each call to VinaPhone subscribers who do not use VietTalk and VND800 per minute to subscribers of other networks.

Subscribers who pay VND2,000 per day for the unlimited number of messages in one day will have free 10-minute phone calls to Vinaphone subscribers and will be charged from the 11th minute.

If message recipients do not access the Internet, the app will deliver messages in normal mode.   

Experts forecast other local mobile service providers will launch their OTT services after VinaPhone. Previously, MobiFone announced a plan to develop an OTT app, while Viettel said it is not a difficult task to develop an OTT service for an enterprise with a workforce of over 1,000 software engineers like the military-run group.