Mobile phone users will be able to keep their numbers when switching from one
service provider to another, under a policy being drafted by the Ministry of
Information and Communications

Under this mobile number portability (MNP) policy, a mobile service subscriber
would have the option of retaining the same number issued by a previous provider
when changing to a new one.

The MNP policy will be intended to benefit customers and strengthen competition
within the telecommunications sector, according to the ministry, since many
customers have hesitated switching providers because it will require switching
phone numbers.

Pham Hong Hai, a senior ministry official, said the MNP policy was still being
studied and would not be applied soon. However, once MNP were applied, mobile
phone operators would no longer own particular prefixes, and the policy would
therefore reduce the quantity of idle or discarded numbers. Industry statistics
suggest that the number of mobile subscribers in a country with a population of
84 million has topped 130 million, but that many of these were, in fact,
duplicate or discarded numbers.

The country’s leading mobile providers, Viettel, MobiFone and VinaPhone, have
been reluctant to apply the MNP policy. Together, these three state-run
providers hold 90 per cent of market share.

The deputy director of military-owned service provider Viettel, Nguyen Manh
Hung, backed the MNP policy in principle but said the decision needed to be made
at the right time.

Hong Kong was one of the first Asian markets to apply MNP, Hung said, but it
triggered a period of market saturation. Meanwhile, the development of
infrastructure and 3G technology remained in a developmental stage in Vietnam.
He asked that the MNP be phased-in, applied only to newly issued numbers, rather
than to all outstanding numbers.

Source: VNS