HT Mobile Starts Migrating its CDMA Customers to GSM
Vietnam's HT Mobile has started its long planned migration from CDMA to GSM. As part of the migration process it has started sending its CDMA subscribers over the S-Fone network whilst it adds the GSM overlay to its network. HT Mobile was established in 2003 as a CDMA2000 joint venture between Hutchison Telecom and Hanoi Telecom.
Local newspaper, VietNamNet Bridge reported that the shifting service is now being provided at 100 offices of HT Mobile throughout the country.
Customer have the choice of either switching immediately to the new GSM network - although the coverage is patchy, or migrating to S-Fone's CDMA network for a couple of months, then being switched to HT Mobile's GSM network when it is ready.
Speaking earlier this month about the migration plans, 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."
According to figures from the Mobile World, HT Mobile launched its services early last year but had only secured around 185,000 customers by the end of September. The country has 34 million phone subscribers, of which nearly 28 million are connected to other operator GSM networks, and remainder are on CDMA networks, S-Fone (3.7 million) and VP Telecom (2.5 million)
On the web: VietNamNet Bridge - Mobile World
Posted to the site on 25th April 2008
