Instead of making idle statements of their top positions in the market, the biggest mobile operators in Vietnam have assessed their business and defined their market shares.

Instead of making idle statements of their top positions in the market, as they have previously, the biggest mobile operators in Vietnam have assessed their business and defined their market shares.

Mobile operators don’t benefit from 3G networks

Has a fight to the death begun in the mobile phone market?

MobiFone rated best in Beeline survey

In its report to the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), VinaPhone said that its market share in December 2009 is 30.3 percent, ranking the second in the country for mobile services after Viettel. It confirmed that 2009 was a good one for VinaPhone when its number of subscribers grew highly.

According to VNPT, VinaPhone’s parent group, the network’s market share at the end of 2009 was 23.88 percent. VinaPhone, therefore, ranks the third after Viettel and MobiFone, which is also under VNPT group. VinaPhone’s 2009 turnover is over 20.5 trillion dong compared to MobiFone’s 33 trillion dong.

But many people may question where VinaPhone collected data from to define its market share. MobiFone didn’t comment on VinaPhone’s report but it said that based on VNPT’s statistics, MobiFone’s revenue is higher than VinaPhone’s.

VinaPhone’s Business Department chief Pham Ngoc Tu said that the report is correct but in certain moments. It means that in December 2009, VinaPhone’s market share was over 30 percent.

Tu said the Ministry of Information and Communications is responsible for defining market shares of telecom networks but telecom firms have their own tools to measure their market shares.

However, a Viettel official said that the top position must belong to his network, based on the number of subscribers and revenue last year. This firm earned nearly 70 trillion dong of turnover last year and it currently has approximately 50 million subscribers.

In its reports, Viettel confirmed its number-one place in the market, with market shares ranging from 36 to 41 percent.

VNPT has its own viewpoint, saying that VNPT holds the top position because VinaPhone and MobiFone are independent from each other but they are under VNPT’s management. VNPT’s revenue, thus, includes both VinaPhone and MobiFone’s turnover. With over 55 percent of market share, VNPT is also the top mobile firm in Vietnam.

Last year this group obtained 78.6 trillion dong of revenue, 18.6 trillion dong higher than Viettel’s. This year both VNPT and Viettel aim to gain 100 trillion dong of revenue.

PV