Vietnam's Ht Mobile Outlines Cdma-to-gsm Overlay Plans

Vietnam's HT Mobile - a joint venture between Hutchison Telecom and Hanoi Telecom - has announced that it has received formal permission from the government to switch its existing CDMA network over to a GSM platform.

In accordance with its CDMA business plan, HT Mobile aggressively rolled out over 1,000 sites in 2007 covering 65% of the populated areas. It has also deployed one of the largest microwave transmission backbone networks in Vietnam connecting all its base stations. HT Mobile's CDMA network has been equipped with one million subscribers' capacity but the company says that due to unfavourable market conditions and industry development, CDMA's customer appeal is tremendously jeopardised leaving HT Mobile's advanced CDMA network involuntarily under-utilised.

The company will now aim to deploy its GSM coverage within one year and will start migrating customers as soon as possible. All migrated customers will get new phone numbers, but also get free call forwarding from their old 092 dial code to the new network. The company will also arrange for SMS forwarding to be offered.

Dr Pham Ngoc Lang, Board Chairman of Hanoi Telecoms said: "It has become apparent that the changes in the global mobile industry last year are increasingly undermining HT Mobile's ability to give its customers the best experiences. The conditions that promote healthy development of customer benefits are enhanced by the wide range of GSM handsets that have Vietnamese language options as well as network providers who commit increasing resources in related network development. HT Mobile believed that the repositioning of the business is for the best benefit to customers, the company and the country's valuable resource in spectrum utilisation."

During the migration period, customers can also keep their existing CDMA service but roam on the rival CDMA network operated by S-Fone, although they will eventually be required to switch to GSM once the coverage matches that offered by the CDMA network.

Posted to the site on 19th March 2008

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