Telecom giants streamline subscriber growth goals

The three largest mobile networks in Vietnam – Viettel, MobiFone and VinaPhone – have reduced their targeted growth in subscription rates for 2010 by half that of 2009 even though an estimated 30 million people have yet to purchase a mobile phone.

In the past several years, mobile service providers have competed vigorously against each other to lure new subscribers with unceasing promotional campaigns. The growth in subscribers was reported up 200 percent annually, but the real number was much smaller.

Last year Viettel sold more than 42 million SIM cards, but gained only 8.4 million new subscribers. The figures were 24 million/10 million for MobiFone.

This year, telecom firms aim to improve service quality, not new subscribers’ numbers.

Viettel, which has the highest growth rate of new subscribers, admitted that it is unusual that the number of subscribers is huge, but revenues are low.

The company plans to attract around 7 million new clients in 2010, 50 percent less than last year, but still a lofty goal.

VinaPhone and MobiFone plan to gain 5 million new users each in 2010, goals that are also halved from that of 2008 and 2009.

According to the Ministry of Information and Communications, by the end of 2009, Vietnam had over 130.4 million phone subscribers, including over 110.5 million mobile subscribers (85 percent of the total). The country’s population is over 86 million.

Of the mobile subscribers, only 75 percent (50 million) are active subscribers, including users of at least two SIM cards.

Viettel’s Vice-General Director Nguyen Manh Hung remarked that over 20 million people do not use a cell phone yet, equivalent to around 30 million potential subscribers.

If Viettel, MobiFone and VinaPhone reach their targets this year, they will have a total of 17 million new subscribers. The remaining 13 million new subscribers may belong to the five smaller mobile networks: S-Fone, EVN Telecom, Vietnamobile, Beeline and the newest provider, Indochina Telecom.

Tags: Vietnam Telecom, Vietnam telecom companies, Vietnam telecom enterprises, Vietnam telecom sector