Vietnam Cdma Operator Nears Launch

Hanoi Telecom has fixed the launch date of its Vietnamese CDMA network for the middle of next month, the company has announced. Over the past two years, the company - a joint venture between Hanoi Telecom and Hutchison Telecom Vietnam - has installed some 800 base stations through the country.

This is considered the biggest project so far in the field of telecommunications in Vietnam with total investment of around US$655.9 million. Nortel has been the infrastructure supplier for the network, based on CDMA2000 1X and 1xEV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized) technology.

"We chose Nortel for this solution because of its proven track record in deploying wireless broadband networks across the globe," said Dr. Pham Ngoc Lang, chairman of the Board of Management, Hanoi Telecom. "We are confident that their experience will help us fast-track communication infrastructure development in Vietnam."

Hutchison Telecom Vietnam and Hanoi Telecom entered into a Business Cooperation Contract in July 2004 to build, construct and operate a CDMA2000 network in Vietnam.

The Mobile World subscriber database estimates that Vietnam ended the first six months of the year with around 13.36 million customers - of which 12.6 million should be connected to the GSM networks."

Posted to the site on 31st October 2006