Local telecoms hook into global market

Military-owned telecom operator Viettel has said investment in foreign markets is a vital task.

“It will help the company become a multi-national as well as create a big enough market for the equipment we make,” a senior company official told Dau Tu (Viet Nam Investment Review) newspaper.

Last month the company received a licence to operate in Peru, its fifth foreign markets after Cambodia, Laos, Haiti and Mozambique.

Viettel plans to invest US$400 million in 10 years in the South American country and hopes to become one of the top three service providers there in two to four years.

This year it will set up more than 4,000 transceiver stations outside Viet Nam to serve its 100 million foreign customers. Viettel’s revenues from its overseas operations are expected to be two or three times that of its local revenues by 2020.

The Viet Nam Post and Telecommunications Corporation (VNPT), which operates the MobiFone and Vinaphone networks, has also invested abroad, focusing on mobile phone and broadband services.

It has signed a contract with Myanmar’s Yatanarpon Teleport to provide telecom services, build a factory to manufacture telecom equipment, and distribute telecom products in that country.

The VNPT will also increase its investment in Venezuela for manufacturing telecom devices and set up a Post Office Protocol (POP) to provide voice, data transmission and other value-added services in Cambodia and Germany.

The Viet Nam Television Corporation has gone international by supplying digital content. In 2009 it established companies in Cambodia, Indonesia, South Korea and Laos.

It has also opened branches in China, Japan, Malaysia, Russia, Thailand and the US and hopes to double its turnover to $10 million from foreign markets this year. — VNS

Tags: Vietnam Telecom, Vietnam telecom maket