Hanoi Times - VNPT Group’s 2007 revenues from its fixed wire network have been eaten away by fierce competition from rivals Viettel and EVN Telecom.
According to the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), VNPT Group had 9.8 million new telephone subscribers in 2007, of which less than 30 per cent were fixed telephone subscribers, raising the group’s total number of fixed telephone users to eight million.
Viettel reported having nearly five million fixed phone subscribers in 2007 with nearly one million new users. EVN Telecom had 1.77 million subscribers within a year and a half of offering services.
In the first week of this year, only 7.4 per cent of VNPT’s new telephone subscribers were fixed phone users.
A VNPT Group source said the group was in the middle of a subscriber war as revenues plummet and investment soars. The group’s revenue from the fixed network was slashed by VND 1 trillion (US$ 62.5 million) last year, while costs rolled up to VND 7 trillion (US$ 437 million).
“We must pay more attention to our competition once Viettel has enhanced its base transceiver stations for home phone service development,” the official said.
Meanwhile, Viettel developed 3,000 home phone subscribers within a day, raising the total to over 228,000 users for the six months ending last year. Viettel wants two million new customers this year.
Nguyen Manh Hung, Viettel Deputy General Director, said home phone users were based mostly in rural areas. However, the average revenue per unit (ARPU) a month was high at VND 120,000 - 130,000 (US$ 7.5 - 8.1).
“The remarkable achievements of Viettel in the fixed telephone business are thanks to home phone user development,” said Hung.
For the broadband ADSL segment, VNPT Group still held half of total market share while FPT and Viettel and others picked up the scraps. “Our rivals have been impressive with their free costs for installation and three month service charges. VNPT Group hasn’t done enough,” said the VNPT source.
To date, Viettel has developed 30,000 kilometers of fiber optic cable lines with a total network capacity of 400 Gbps.
VNPT Group aims to finish installation and develop the metropolitan area network, or MAN, in September, this year.
“Ho Chi Minh City post office reported a number of fixed telephone subscribers leaving VNPT network and we must think seriously about this and consider the current eight million subscribers as potential customers for ADSL services,” said the official.
