Vietnam Signs up 10Mln Mobile Phone Subscribers in 2006

The total number of new mobile phone subscribers reached 10 million in 2006, almost doubling the number of the previous year, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications said Tuesday in Hanoi.

 

The new figure raised the total mobile phone subscriber population to 22 million.

 

The increase partly resulted from the war to gain market share waged by mobile phone operators as MobiFone, VinaPhone, S-Fone and Viettel.

 

After two years of operation, Viettel Mobile with 7.3 million subscribers (including 5 million in 2006) ousted VinaPhone to take the top spot, MobiFone kept second place with 7.1 million subscribers and VinaPhone was overthrown from first place to third with 5.3 million subscribers.

 

The S-Fone, which runs on the CDMA technology, has over one million subscribers after four years of operation.

 

With the penetration of two new CDMA mobile phone service providers, EVN Telecom and Hanoi Telecom, Vietnam is estimated to attract an additional 20 million new subscribers in 2007.

 

The market will see severe competition between GMS technology (Viettel, MobiFone and VinaPhone) and CDMA technology (S-Fone, EVN Telecom and Hanoi Telecom) in 2007, experts said.

 

However, the Minister of Posts and Telecom warned these mobile phone networks not to pay overdue attention to expansion but to service quality as well.