VietNamNet Bridge – On November 1, 2008, the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) applied charges of VND1,000 per minute for fixed-phone subscribers and others, benefiting nearly 50 million clients. New phone service providers still haven’t gotten over their “shock”.

Under this price policy, fixed-phone subscribers (who use Cityphone, inner-provincial CDMA, Gphone services) can make calls to other fixed subscribers of VNPT in other provinces, to mobile subscribers of VinaPhone and MobiFone at the charge of VND1,000 per minute. Pre-paid mobile users of MobiFone and VinaPhone can also make calls to fixed subscribers of VNPT, and mobile subscribers of MobiFone and VinaPhone make calls to each other at this rate.

In the two months since VNPT applied the “shocking” charge, other rivals have not changed their charge policies following VNPT. S-fone has amended its charges, but conversely increased them to avoid losses.

A representative of EVN Telecom said VNPT’s slashing of charges has greatly influenced new telecom networks but he didn’t reveal EVN Telecom’s policy to compete with VNPT. Viettel, a big rival of VNPT, has not adjusted its charges. It is said that Viettel may cut mobile phone charges, not fixed charges, because investment in fixed-phone services is huge and it takes a long time to get a return on investments.

Experts say seven mobile service providers for a market of over 80 million people are too many so the bankruptcy of some is indispensable.

They also said that in the race among the current seven service providers, the networks that rank from fourth to seventh will suffer losses or make no profit so it is better for them to merge anyway. Therefore, in the coming time, there may be “wedding-bells” sounding throughout the Vietnamese telecom market.

(Source: HNM)