Vietnam Awards 3G Licenses - Viettel Warns of Rollout Costs

Vietnam's Ministry of Information and Communications has formally granted four 3G licences, which will take effect on 15th September to Viettel, MobiFone, VinaPhone and a joint venture between Hanoi Telecom and Electricity Vietnam (EVN) Telecoms.

Notably, the local arm of Russia's VimpelCom, which launched a mobile network last month did not get a formal 3G license.

VinaPhone aims to launch its 3G services as soon as October in major cities, including Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh city, and then expand to other localities, while MobiFone planns to launch 3G in December. All the operators are required to start services within nine months of receiving their licenses.

However, Viettel has warned that the costs of deploying their 3G network could prove to be ruinous for the military run network operator. "In the beginning, we were eager for 3G," Viettel General Director Hoang Anh Xuan told the Thanhnien News. "But after learning about the implementation of the service in foreign countries, we've become concerned about it."

Viettel has previously committed to providing 3G service to 86 percent of the population by April 2010 and 100 percent by August 2012.

Viettel has already awarded 3G rollout contracts to Nokia Siemens Networks, ZTE and Huawei. Estimates from the Mobile World shows that Viettel ended Q1 '09 with 21.7 million customers, representing a market share of just under 30%.

On the web: Thanhnien News - Mobile World - Viettel

Posted to the site on 17th August 2009