Mobile operators denied price cuts
Mobile service providers may not be permitted to cut rates by up to 20 per cent as advertised because of Ministry of Information and Telecommunications’ guidelines.
On Monday, MobiFone and Vinaphone ran promotions offering discounts of as much as 20.29 per cent for teenagers and students. However, current ministry regulations state that mobile phone service providers can only discount prices by a maximum of 15 per cent.
Dinh Viet Hung, head of MobiFone’s Charge and Marketing Division, said discounts had been offered to students and teenagers using Q-Teen and Q-Student. However, Hung said the average discount rate for all customers was 15 per cent, in accordance with telecoms’ regulations.
Nguyen Thu Hong, from VinaPhone, said her company had also advertised discounts averaging 10-15 per cent, in accordance with the law.
The higher rate of 20 per cent is for those without jobs, or on low-incomes such as students, she said. Post-paid customers will get a discount of just 10 per cent, while pre-paid customers will receive a discount of 15 per cent, Hong said.
Le Nam Thang, deputy minister of Information and Telecommunications, said the ministry on July 30 approved the two mobile phone giants’ plans to reduce rates by an average of between 10-15 per cent from August 10. However, Thang said the firms had advertised discounts of up to 20 per cent, and would therefore be penalised.
Meanwhile, the ministry approved military-owned Viettel’s plan to cut rates by 10-15 per cent – or VND100-VND200 per minute – on July 27, to be effective on the same day.
The country’s other service providers – S-Fone, Vietnamobile, EVN Telecom and Beeline – have not announced plans to reduce rates.
FTI signs domain hosting services
FPT Telecom International (FTI) has signed a co-operative agreement with the Nganluong.vn on-line payment gateway to integrate into the http://data.fpt.vn website.
The agreement aims to generate conditions for clients to purchase and make on-line payments at the FTI fast, safe and convenient.
FTI’s clients will be able to buy domain names and hosting services.
Web portal launches new services
The Viet Nam Data Communication Company (VDC) under the Viet Nam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) have introduced five new services to the MegaVNN Plus portal, including MegaGreen, MegaSecurity, McAfee Anti-virus, MegaDoc, MegaShare VIP and Buyme.vn.
MegaGreen can prevent access to black websites, virus and spam mails from web sites. There are currently about seven million black web sites listed on MegaGreen’s database. With MegaGreen, parents block dangerous sites from children.
MegaSecurity provides four service packages, including MegaSecurity CMC-home (free for MegaVNN subscribers), MegaSecurity CMC-Enterprise (for enterprises), MegaKillporn (searching and deleting black websites), MegaSecurity F-Secure (security).
Telcom devices showroom opens
China-based Huawei, a leading supplier in providing next generation telecommunications network solutions for operators around the world, opened its first showroom this week to introduce telecoms devices in Viet Nam.
Consumers in addition to existing corporate clients will now have access to the firm’s smart devices, with their seamless connection, convenient sharing capabilities and easily controllable functions.
Huawei is a major telecoms device supplier to VNPT, Viettel, Vinaphone, Mobifone, EVN and Sfone and Gtel.
Kaspersky launches writing contest
The Russia-based security solutions company, Kaspersky Lab, is calling on Vietnamese IT students from universities and other institutes of higher education to participate in a writing contest on cyber crime that will open in October.
The Kaspersky Academy Asia Cup 2010 contest aims to bring together IT students, experts, researchers, and scientists in a collaborative environment to present and discuss issues related to computer crimes. The three best essays from Viet Nam will qualify for the next round to be held in Malaysia next year.
Foreigners enter software contest
A contest to hunt for software bugs announced by American software testing LogiGear Corporation has so far attracted 270 participants from around the world.
It offers tickets each worth US$450 to five winners for the Viet Nam International Software Testing and Automation Conference (VistaCon 2010) to be held in HCM City next month.
The contest, for which registration started on July 12, will remain open until August 15.
Siemens promotes Sirius system
Siemens Industry Automation has launched its newly developed modular system, Sirius Innovations, in Viet Nam.
The new generation of low-voltage switching devices, Sirius Innovations, further advances the benefits of its predecessor and was presented at the Hannover Messe trade show 2010 in Germany.
Trend Micro opens office in Ha Noi
Trend Micro, a global leader with over two decades of expertise in endpoint, messaging and web security, announced the establishment of a new office in Ha Noi, raising the total number of the company’s offices to 24 worldwide.
The Ha Noi office not only will help Trend Micro gain a stronger foothold locally, but further its cloud market visibility in the Asia Pacific region.
PV
