VIETTEL Proving its Worth

 

Prior to the establishment of Viettel, there were only two enterprises of VNPT : Vinaphone and MobiFone making up 97 per cent of mobile phone market. Viettel was hardly regarded as a competitor of Vinaphone and MobiFone considering the costly lesson of S-Fone. However, after a month of operation, Viettel had surpassed the mark of 100,000 clients, a record that took GSM network a year to attain it. And in less than 10 months, Viettel welcomed its 1,000,000^th client. The growth was beyond the expectation of most telecom experts. Mr Hoang Anh Xuan, Viettel Director General said :”The initial success of Viettel is due to four factors : correct strategy, speedy development, creativity and determination of the whole staff”.

 

Viettel is the first company in Vietnam applying fees for 6-second blocks, the most profitable for clients. The company has also offered the lowest price on the Vietnamese market. The growth of Viettel has compelled Vinaphone and MobiFone to reduce their charges accordingly. And the number of mobile phones has increased from 2 million to 4 million a year including some 1.6 million by Viettel. Mr Nguyen Manh Hung, Deputy Director General said : “One of the objectives of Viettel is to make mobile phones within the reach of the low-income earners in Vietnam and we are committed to attain that objective with high quality”.

 

To achieve its goal, Viettel has made big investment in the development of its network. While other GSM networks need 10 years, Viettel needs only a little over one year to expand the network for 4 million mobile telephones. On October 25, 2005, Viettel officially operated 4.5 million-unit network. By the end of 2005, 1,800 tranmission stations will be completed making Viettel the biggest network in Vietnam.