Telecom Giant Loses Ground in Household Broadband

Telecom Giant Loses Ground in Household Broadband

The Vietnam Post & Telecoms Corporation (VNPT), which holds the largest share in the country’s high-speed internet market, is falling behind its major competitors to provide household broadband access.

VNPT was the first company to offer broadband via the standard phone line (known as Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) in the country, and currently it has about 45,000 subscribers.

Meanwhile, its major competitors, including FPT and Viettel Internet, have 40,000 and 15,000 users, respectively.

However, most of VNPT’s broadband subscribers are businesses, and it is unable to join FPT and Viettel in the race to provide high speed net access to households.

The lackluster performance is driven up by the fact that VNPT is offering broadband for up to VND200,000 (US$12.65) per month, while FPT and Viettel are providing the service for just around VND50,000-54,000 per month.

Also, customers have to fulfill many procedures to get broadband connections from state-owned VNPT, while only a phone call is necessary with the other companies to make the connection.

Broadband is catching on in the country meaning the end of the so-called dial-up internet access is coming closer and closer. Sales from dial-up services have been dropping substantially since broadband was launched, FPT said.

The company said in May, its earnings from dial-up services were only VND2 billion (over US$126,000), too low to compare with VND25 billion (nearly US$1.6 million) coming from broadband connections.

Thanhniennews.com