Carriers pledge to slash mobile charges

This month will see mobile charges fall sharply after three giant mobile carriers Viettel, MobiFone and VinaPhone declared that they would cut charges by up to 15 percent following approval last week from the Ministry of Information and Communications.

The movement is a result of these telco enterprises’ suggestion for charge reduction since early last month. In the suggestion, VinaPhone and MobiFone as affiliates of the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group said that they wanted to attract more clients after a new regulation on promotion becomes effective on July 1.

According to the carriers, the new regulation aims to restrict undercutting among telecom services providers, so it caps promotions at 50 percent of a reload card’s value.

The carriers have thrown support behind the rule, but are worried that lack of strong promotions would make it hard to attract customers. This is why some mobile networks have called on the ministry to permit them to cut charges.

Bui Quoc Viet, spokesman for VNPT, said in his statement that the charge cut would benefit clients and would go in line with the ministry’s price management policy. In addition, “it will be a motivation for us to attract more clients,” he said.

Although the two mobile carriers have got nod for slashing charges, they have not announced the detailed reduction list up to date.

Viet said that “we needed more time for mapping out a price reduction list which is due to be released in the middle of this month.”

Like VNPT, Viettel as the biggest mobile carrier in terms of subscription has received approval since July 26. The telco group has cut its charges by between 10 percent and 15 percent, and has publicised the service charge reduction.

Under Viettel mobile charge reduction, internal calling fee is only 1,190 dong per minute compared to VND1,390 per minute previously, while external calling fee is cut from 1,590 per minute to 1,390.

The General Statistical Office reported that in the first seven months of the year, the country saw 28.9 million new phone users registered, up 11.8 percent year-on-year.

Up to date, the country has 157.8 million telephone subscription numbers, over 140 million of which are mobile phone subscribers. – SGT

Tags: Vietnam Mobile charges, Vietnam Telecom, Vietnam telecom maket