Computer viruses will continue to thrive in Viet Nam this year as internet-users ignore the consequences of installing fake software online, the Bach Khoa Anti-virus centre said in their "2010 Virus Review".

The review said there was a significant increase in fake anti-virus programmes; viruses that targeted databases; hacking into company networks; and mobile phone viruses last year with more to come in 2011.

The review warned of about 60 million computers in Viet Nam that are infected with nearly 60,000 different viruses.

The persistent W32.Conficker and Metamorphic viruses were still on the top of the list of usual suspects.

2010 was a boom year for fake anti-virus software with 2.2 million downloads from websites offering the free anti-virus ware, 8.5 times higher than the year before.

The review said a new virus type poses as a file in the user's documents using an icon. This virus type infected 1.4 million computers last year.

Viruses that destroy data had appeared twice in 2010. Though they didn't cause serious damage they could be a bigger threat in future.

Virus attacks on networks caused public alarm as important websites were targeted.

BKAV experts have also discovered hacker groups that used viruses to steal information from Vietnamese organisations' networks.

Source: VNS

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Experts believe that 2011 will be the right time for telecom service providers to apply new policies that aim for sustainable development instead of network expansion. Meanwhile, policy makers will apply necessary measures to tightly control the telecom market.

Mobile service providers urged to apply new customer-care policies

Since the beginning of 2011, mobile service providers have continuously launched big promotion campaigns in order to attract more clients. From January 25 to January 28, 2011, VinaPhone will launch the “four golden days” program applied to both post-paid and pre-paid subscribers. Under the program, the clients, who activate new phone cards on these days, will be rewarded bonuses equal to the cards’ value. VinaPhone’s promotion campaign is being carried out after a similar 4-day promotional campaign by MobiFone, another service provider. Prior to that, VinaPhone also offered “golden days” two times.

Mobile service providers said that they continuously carry out promotion programs in an effort to ease burdens on their clients. On the days just before Tet, the prices of all kinds of goods are increasing sharply, while mobile phone charges tend to decrease.

A noteworthy fact is that the promotion campaigns all aim to “take care” of pre-paid subscribers. It is clear that pre-paid subscribers always get more preferences than post-paid subscribers. Explaining this, mobile service providers said that more than 90 percent of their subscribers are pre-paid subscribers, therefore, they need to offer more promotions to these clients.

Nevertheless, experts say that the current situation will change in 2011. Both the Ministry of Information and Communication and enterprises have drawn up the plan to build up specific policies to address post-paid subscribers this year, because it is post-paid subscribers who bring the largest profits to enterprises.

Besides, experts also believe that mobile service providers should not try to attract more subscribers by lowering charges any more. They need to persuade clients by offering high quality services.

There are about 150 million mobile phone subscribers in Vietnam.

Government suggests tightened control over pre-paid subscribers

InDispatch No 169 released by the Government’s Office several days ago, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan requested relevant ministries to quickly apply necessary measures to tighten control over pre-paid subscribers.

The Deputy Prime Minister has asked the Ministry of Public Security to urgently develop the electronic database of identity cards, and cooperate with the Ministry of Information and Communication and telecom firms to discuss the solution to exploit the database for pre-paid subscriber management.

In fact, the project on pre-paid subscriber control under which telecom companies have build up their systems on subscriber management was undertaken two years ago, One hundred percent of pre-paid subscribers have to register personal information with the companies. However, there are still doubts about the accuracy of the information.

Ministry promulgated new policy on international calling charges

Deputy Minister of Information and Communication Le Nam Thang has said that in January 2011, the ministry will release a legal document on international calling charges, a move that aims to ensure the business efficiency of telecom companies.

Thang said that the legal document will stipulate that the international calling charges must be defined based on production costs. Currently, as telecom companies are fiercely competing with each other, they have to lower calling charges, which threatens the sustainable development of telecom enterprises.

For example, VTI, the leading international telecom service provider in Vietnam has also said that the high output of international calls does not mean high profits, because the charges are too low.

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Computer viruses will continue to thrive in Vietnam this year as internet-users ignore the consequences of installing fake software online, the Bach Khoa Anti-virus centre said in their "2010 Virus Review".

The review said there was a significant increase in fake anti-virus programmes; viruses that targeted databases; hacking into company networks; and mobile phone viruses last year with more to come in 2011.

The review warned of about 60 million computers in Vietnam that are infected with nearly 60,000 different viruses.

The persistent W32.Conficker and Metamorphic viruses were still on the top of the list of usual suspects.

2010 was a boom year for fake anti-virus software with 2.2 million downloads from websites offering the free anti-virus ware, 8.5 times higher than the year before.

The review said a new virus type poses as a file in the user's documents using an icon. This virus type infected 1.4 million computers last year.

Viruses that destroy data had appeared twice in 2010. Though they didn't cause serious damage they could be a bigger threat in future.

Virus attacks on networks caused public alarm as important websites were targeted.

BKAV experts have also discovered hacker groups that used viruses to steal information from Vietnamese organisations' networks.

VietNamNet/VNA

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Viettel has surpassed VNPT on pre-tax profit in 2010 for the first time. Viettel reportedly earned pre-tax profits of VND15.5 trillion ($775 million) last year, while VNPT Group mustered VND11.2 trillion ($560 million).

VNPT Group's revenue was estimated at VND101 trillion ($5 billion), a year-on-year increase of 27 per cent against last year's figure. Its rival, Viettel earned revenue of VND91 trillion ($4.55 billion) in 2010, a year-on-year increase of 52 per cent against 2009.

The gap between of VNPT Group and Viettel staff's productivity is growing. VNPT Group staff's productivity was estimated at VND1.1 billion ($563,000) in 2010, while Viettel's was nearly VND4 billion ($2 million).

VNPT Group had 15 million registered users in 2010 as new telephone subscribers signed in 2010 was equal to 78 per cent of 2009's number. Meanwhile Viettel signed up 46.3 million new telephone subscribers last year.

Lean organisation and high discount rates made the profits of Viettel higher than that of its main rival. Viettel had fixed total assets value of VND45 trillion ($2.2 billion).

Nguyen Manh Hung, deputy general director of Viettel, said revenue from overseas facilities would post a growth rate of 100 per cent.

VNPT Group chief Pham Long Tran said the group was still covering losses from fixed phone services due to decreasing fixed-phone subscriber numbers.

"The number of fixed phone subscribers has decreased by 20 per cent a year while VNPT has invested a lot in promoting fixed phone services and we have to cover losses," said Tran.

VNPT Group cut 5,000 staff from its affiliate Vietnam Post Corporation in 2010 to make the organisation leaner after the group completed the process of splitting its telecom and post businesses in 2008. However, its productivity has been still far lower than Viettel since 2008.

"We also have plan for cutting number of staff working for our Telecom Corporation, however, we have yet arranged funds for that," said Tran.

VNPT is still the country's largest telecom operator, running two large mobile networks, MobiFone and VinaPhone along with its international and domestic transmission business. Viettel runs the country's largest mobile network Viettel and another four networks in Cambodia, Laos, Haiti and Mozambique.

Source: VIR

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A café in Tokyo, Japan, is selling a kind of coffee called “miraculin” which does not use sugar or any kind of genetic sweeteners. Miraculin is the main element of a tree called “miracle tree” which has been growing in Vietnam for the last 10 years.

In 1725, a French explorer named Des Marchais wrote about a strange custom of the native residents in the western Africa. Their meals were very sour and they did not use sugar. However, after chewing a kind of red fruit, the sourness would be overcome to sweetness, without the use of sugar.

In 1852, the tree was described by Dr W.F. Daniel as having a special feature, and called Synsepalum dulcificum, belonging to Sapotaceae. He also named it “miracle tree”.

According to Pham Huu Hien, MBA from the US South Columbia University, this is a kind of tree which grows up to six meters after 10 years. The tree is suitable for dry soil and bears fruits which turn red when ripening and look very beautiful after the rainy season

Ripened fruits are easily spoiled even when they are preserved in the environment with low temperature. The tree is called “miracle” because its fruits can make the sourness and bitterness of orange and lemon or any kinds fruits become sweet. The local names of the tree are taami, asaa and ledidi. The main element of the tree is miraculin.

Pharmacist Hien said that a café in Tokyo is now offering miraculin coffee with no sugar or any genetic sweetener. The price is relatively high at $15 per glass. The “miracle” fruits are being provided by Namco Company in Japan. Japanese scientists are planning to graft miraculin gene into lettuce tree in order to make production in a large scale after an experiment of grafting miraculin gene into E.coli bacteria failed.

Miraculin is forecasted to dominate the market in the future as a zero calorie sweetener, which can be used in industrial food and used to replace artificial toxic sweeteners. Besides, it can be used to prevent some kinds of diseases, such as weight loss and glycosuria.

The effect of sweetening can last for one hour and it will disappear easily if one drinks a cup of hot tea. Since miraculin has no calories, and it is a natural sweetener, it has been used by African natives for hundreds of years. Many manufacturers hope that the tree can be used widely to treat many diseases which require genetic sweeteners and cannot use saccaroz, such as glycosuria, or obesity.

However, as miracle tree has not been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration FDA, this kind of tree can only be grown as ornamental tree in the country. To date, only Japan plans to use miraculin in industrial food, though the US was the country which had the idea. Some sources said that the FDA still want to protect genetic sweetener producers, therefore, it still has not allowed the use of miraculin.

In Vietnam, miracle tree has been mainly grown as ornamental tree instead of being used for making medicine or functional foods. Many experts from the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, the Vietnam Museum of Nature, and from the Agricultural Genetics Institute and the Vietnam Functional Foods association said that they are unfamiliar with the tree and its effects.

Miracle trees were imported to Vietnam 10 years ago, and the trees have been grown more profusely in recent years in HCM City as ornamental and medical plants.

Minh Nguyen is the owner of an original garden named Ky Dieu in Tan Xuan commune in Hoc Mon district of HCM City. Talking with Tien phong reporters, he called himself the first person who brought the miracle tree to Vietnam. It was the gift of a friend, a Viet Kieu, who gave it to him 10 years ago.

Hearing about the miraculous features of the tree, Minh Nguyen tried to seek more information about the tree on Internet. Now he is the biggest supplier of miracle trees in HCM City. As Nguyen does not have knowledge about pharmacy, he has just been selling the trees as ornamental trees.

The cheapest tree is selling at 30,000 dong which will bear fruits in two or four years. If people want to get fruits after 1-2 years, they have to buy bigger trees, at 100-150,000 dong. The trees with beautiful red fruits are selling at no less than 600,000 per tree and can be displayed to decorate houses on Tet days.

There are 3-4 gardens which grow miracle trees in HCM City. Some months ago, some garden owners in Hanoi asked Minh Nguyen to carry out a project of carrying the tree to Hanoi.

Source: Tien phong

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Seeing the drops of perspiration rolling down the pedicab driver’s forehead, an idea flashed through the mind of the three students from the Da Nang University of Technology that it is necessary to force sunlight to serve the needs of human beings. As such, the clean car SC4 has been born.

“At first, we intended to manufacture a 3-wheel pedicab run by solar energy which allows drivers to save 70 percent of their strength,” Ta Ngoc Thien Binh, head of the SC4 car research team said. However, they later decided to manufacture a clean car, especially when they found out that the car prices in Vietnam are still incredibly high.

Also according to Thien Binh, solar-energy run cars have the common disadvantage that they always need a long time to recharge their batteries, while the capability of running continuously and the operation scope remain limited.

The group of three students Ta Ngoc Thien Binh, Huynh Kim Trang and Pham Nguyen Son then decided to design a transmission using the technology of converting petrol-run engines into gas-run engines (LPG, NGV, or biogas). The technology was invented by Professor Dr Bui Van Ga. When the supply of electricity runs out or there is no sunlight, SC4 will run by a heat engine, using LPG, which is installed together with the electricity engine.

Son related that after three months, SC4, the pet of the three students, was born and successfully tested. The car can carry two people (each person weights 70 kilograms) and can achieve speeds up to 50 kilometers/hr. The car can run continuously when there is sunlight, while the “life expectancy” of the car is about 20 years. The total production cost of the car, including mechanical engineering and designing expenses, would be about 60 million dong.

“The car proves to be suitable for use in tourist cities like Da Nang, Hoi An and Ha Long, because they can bring people to do shopping. If compared to petrol run cars, the SC4 is notably inferior in its functions, but SC4 has its own advantages. It can charge electronics such as laptop or mobile phones,” Son said. “Besides, it does not require special care and regular maintenance”.

Accepting risks and the dream of becoming “the boss”

The head of the SC4 team related that at first the team had four members. However, when the idea about a clean car was discussed, many people had doubts about its feasibility. Therefore, a member left the team.

However, the other three other members decided to continue to manufacture a clean car. They decided to look for relating documents everywhere, including going to HCM City. They spent all the money they had and all the money they borrowed to manufacture an experimental model which had production cost of 13 million dong.

The students shared that they were lucky enough to receive the support from Duong Viet Dung, a teacher, and from their faculty which gave them a room that was used as a “mechanical workshop”.

From all of their efforts and support they have achieved success. The scientific research work off the three students was awarded the first prize in the competition of students doing scientific research. Binh said that the car has a very special significance, because it not only has brought the first prize, but new knowledge and experience useful for his life. Before getting a scholarship due to his scientific research, Binh had received a scholarship to study two years at Ulsan University in South Korea.

Discussing the future, Binh said that he will spend his time to perfect the SC4. “I will to become the boss of a made-in-Vietnam car manufacturing company when I return after the university study,” he said.

Source: Saigon tiep thi

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Mobile service providers have launched a lot of promotion campaigns, hoping to increase the numbers of subscribers and to satisfy the demand which is believed to increase sharply on Tet.

The Military Telecom Company Viettel has decided to extend the latest promotion programme until the end of January 31, 2011.

Under the programme, subscribers only have to pay the monthly subscription fee and 25,000 dong a month in order to be able to enjoy charge exemption for all the inner-network calls with the duration of less than 10 minutes.

A source from Viettel said that since the day when the company applied the policies that allow subscribers to enjoy charge exemption for the inner-network calls, the company has seen clear changes in the consumption tendency. Especially, the number of post-paid subscribers has increased by 10 percent.

Besides the above said policy, Viettel has also provided a new service package, allowing people, who make calls from fixed lines to mobile subscribers, to enjoy the charges lower by 40 percent than the normal charges.

VinaPhone, one of the three biggest mobile service providers, has also launched a new promotion programme applied to new post-paid subscribers. The provider hopes that the programme will help attract about 100,000 new subscribers in the Tet months.

Prior to that, the programme on allowing to exempt charges for the minutes from the second to 10^th of inner-network calls was also very successfully carried out by MobiFone in all provinces and cities nationwide. MobiFone also three times extended the promotion programme, under which subscribers, who make 10-minute calls, only have to pay for one minute. The policy only ended on December 31, 2010.

Sources said that the mobile service provider is considering launching new promotion programmes into the market in some days.

Vietnamobile, a new comer on the market, has launched a promotion programme applied to subscribers in the south. Under the programme, with just 1000 dong, subscribers can make a 60-minute inner-network call. Vietnamobile hopes that with the policy, it may become the mobile network which has the highest number of mobile phone subscribers among the four small networks.

There are seven mobile phone networks in Vietnam’s telecom market, including three biggest operators, VinaPhone, MobiFone and Viettel, called “the big guys”, which are holding the biggest market share. Vietnamobile is among the other four smaller networks.

Though being considered a “small network”, Vietnamobile has still decided to spend much money to stimulate the demand. The mobile service provider has decided to spent five billion dong to run a promotion programme. It has decided to award a golden simcard weighing 277 taels of gold (worth one billion dong) to the subscriber who wins the special prize of the programme.

Elizabete Fong, Managing Director of Vietnamobile, said that the promotion programme aims to attract more people to use Vietnamobile’s services and persuade subscribers keep simcards for a longer time.

However, commenting about the moves by mobile service providers, experts say the promotion programmes would not help increase the number of new subscribers rapidly. Statistics showed that the number of new subscribers was 4-7 times lower than that of the previous year. Viettel, for example, only got 2.1 million new subscribers in 2010, while the figure was 16 million in 2009.

According to the Ministry of Information and Communication, the number of mobile phone subscribers in 2010 reached 148 million, or 35 million higher than in 2009.

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Spam messages, a problem that once caused headaches for mobile phone users, have returned. However, state management agencies still do not know how to deal with the problem.

Spam messages returning with new tricks

Hoang Cong Thang, a business officer of Lan Anh Phone Company headquartered on Nguyen Trai street, said that everyday, he receives 3-5 spam messages. Even worse, these days, as the new lunar year approaches, the number of spam messages sent to his mobile phone has sharply increased.

“You have a music gift from a lover. In order to get the gift and know who sent the gift, please send a message to 6782”, a message reads. “Congratulations! You have luckily won a prize, an iPhone 4, in our

Quaythuongngaunhien lucky draw program. In order to know more details about the prize and the program, please send a message to 6782”.

According to Thang, spam messages have been booming for the last two months. Most of the spam messages aim to deceive mobile phone users. The messages aim to stir the curiosity of the users and if users send messages back to the senders to “know more details” as they are promised, they will be “trapped”, because they will lose 10-15,000 dong for each message.

The messages are very “attractive”, because they all inform that mobile phone users receive gifts or win big prizes. Therefore, it is understandable why many people have fallen into the traps, while others, who have learned their lesson from other people, feel tetchy because they have to spend time reading and erasing the messages.

Thoi Bao Kinh Te Vietnam quoted a person who has been delivering spam messages as saying that now is his main “business season’, because the people’s demand for shopping increases at the year-end, therefore, the messages with “attractive” content will easily persuade people to send messages back.

Who to blame?

According to experts, the spam messages can come from two “channels”, from content providers (CP) and from normal subscribers. However, Vu Quoc Khanh, Director of the Vietnam Computer Emergency Response Team VNCERT, affirmed that most of CPs have strictly followed the management policy after they were granted management codes, and that only normal subscribers can be the sources of spam messages.

VNCERT is the agency which grants management codes to service providers and it runs the 456 operator system which allows mobile phone users to forward the spam messages they receive to 456, free of charge.

However, while the agency also assists with tracking spam messages, it does not have the right to impose fines on violators.

According to Khanh, many mobile service providers have set up strict regulations to heavily punish spammers. However, the service providers only impose punishments when they receive complaints from clients, and they have ignored other cases. This means that on one hand, service providers try to show that they are following the current regulations, but on the other hand, they let violators “do what they want”.

According to Khanh, the problem is that service providers themselves also benefit from the spam messages. Therefore, they will not be foolish enough to stop spam messages and watch their income decrease.

Most of the spam messages are sourced from pre-paid simcards, the ones called “rubbish simcards”, because people only use once and then give them away. “There has been no proper solution to deal with the messages sent from normal subscribers,” Khanh admitted.

Source: Thoi bao Kinh te Vietnam

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Analysts believe that 2011 will be a tough year for telecom companies because it is getting more and more difficult to seek clients for broadband ADSL internet services

The “hot development age” is over

Just several years ago, broadband Internet ADSL was the top choice of internet users in big urban areas, cities and in rural areas. The demand for installing ADSL was so high that sometimes enterprises did not have enough DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer) to provide services. Nowadays, ADSL services have been threatened by new rivals such as broadband 3G Internet and optical cable FTTH.

Though new technologies are still far from being considered the main consumption trend in 2011, it is clear that the existence of new technologies is a threat to the enterprises providing broadband internet. The broadband Internet market not only has ADSL, but also other technologies which could be seen as worthy rivals of ADSL.

According to the Ministry of Information and Communication, at the end of 2010 the total number of broadband subscribers had reached 3.68 million, with the density of 4.2 percent. Currently, VNPT (the Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group) is holding the biggest market share (70 percent and 2.6 million subscribers).

The second and third positions on the market belong to the two big guys, FPT Telecom and Viettel with one million subscribers each.Some other enterprises are also providing services, but their market share remains very modest. The figures are modest if compared with the potentials and the capacity of larger service providers.

New business strategies needed

Some analysts believe that though the number of ADSL subscribers still is not high,there have been signs showing that the service has entered a setback period. Of course, ADSL service will not “die” in the immediate time or in 2011, but there is no doubt that optical cable and wireless broadband Internet services will be the biggest threat to ADSL.

ADSL service providers well understand the threat. Therefore, the three service providers that hold the biggest market shares now, VNPT/VDC, FPT Telecom and Viettel have been quietly applying measures to attract clients. They have been trying to perfect service packages, focusing on improving the quality of service or launching promotional campaigns.

A representative from VNPT/VDC admitted that though the company did not obtain the expected number of new subscribers in 2010, big cities and urban areas are no longer “fertile soil” for the company. VDC’s Director Vu Hoang Lien frankly said that the main objectives of the company are retaining existing clients and reaching out to rural and remote areas.

VDC has been following its business motto that it is necessary to create favorable conditions to help as more people access internet services as possible. Specifically, the company has been paying attention to the development of services in rural areas.

Meanwhile, analysts believe that ADSL, though having to compete with other technologies, still has the advantage of low costs and prices that will be lowered further in the time to come. This proves to be the biggest advantage. Just with tens of thousands dong, ADSL users can surf on Internet. Meanwhile, the users of other services will have to pay hundreds of thousands of dong, or millions of dong a month.

It is clear that local residents in rural areas do not want to spend much money on internet services, therefore, this will be an opportunity for ADSL to expand its market share.

Source: VnMedia

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Experts believe that the year 2011 will witness a new stage of development in the telecom market with telecom companies shaking hands to co-exist and develop side by side instead of fiercely competing by lowering charges.

Large scale development of 3G technology has been considered as one of the most important breakthroughs in Vietnam’s telecom industry in 2010. According to Nguyen Manh Hung, Deputy General Director of the Military Telecom Company Viettel, Vietnam has built up the largest 3G infrastructure in ASEAN.

“To date, Viettel alone has set up 20,000 3G base transceiver stations nationwide. Meanwhile, Thailand still has not granted us a license for 3G services, while the Philippines and Malaysia have been developing 3G for the last many years, but the number of transceiver stations remains modest,” Hung said.

However, the development of 3G technology has pushed the telecom market into a fiercer competition in the last year. The wave of lowering charges and offering sale promotions has led to a situation in which the mobile service charges have been lowered to the levels dangerously close to production costs. This has forced the Ministry of Information and Communication to tighten the promotion activities by releasing the Circular No 11, stipulating that service providers could only slash the charges by 15 percent at maximum in 2010.

Commenting on stiff competition on the mobile telecom market in 2010, amanager of a small service provider said that the three biggest companies already hold 90 percent of the market share. Therefore, the pieces of the market left for them are very small, which explains why it is very difficult for them to attract more subscribers.

Though they have modest revenue, small service providers still have to spend money to run promotional campaigns. Therefore, they are facing financial difficulties, making them unable to continue the price slashing race. Even the three giants on the market have also suffered from the stiff competition.

The bad consequence of the stiff competition is that Vietnam’s telecom market bears signs of unsustainable development.

Deputy Minister of Information and Communication Le Nam Thang also admitted that Vietnam’s telecom has expanded considerably in the last 10 years, but there have been signs of unsustainable development. This can be seen in the decreasing figures in profit turnover, investment capital and tax payments by telecom companies to the state.

In 2011, mobile virtual network operators MVNO like Indochina Telecom, VTC and FPT will officially provide services to the market. The operators will purchase wholesale the capacity from the infrastructure developers such as Viettel, MobiFone and VinaPhone and then retail to clients under their brands.

In another move, in 2011 as small service providers cannot continue the battle with big providers, they will try to “shake hands” with the partners with high financial capability in order to leverage their strengths. The trend was initiated by EVN Telecom in 2010 when the operator sold 66 percent of its chartered capital to FPT. With the affair, EVN Telecom got 3000 billion dong to invest in the 3G infrastructure.

It is expected that in 2011, similar cooperative deals will be made, including deals between CMC and VTC to develop 4G/LTE technology, or between SPT and a partner in the S-Fone project.

“The convergence of telecom, broadband Internet, broadcasting and televising will be more clear in 2011, with telecom and multimedia entertainment services to be developed. With 3G technology and 4G/LTE technology in the near future, operators not only provide connection services, but will also provide other services to consumers and enterprises,” said Jan Wassenius, General Director of Ericsson Vietnam.

C.V

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Though many Vietnamese mobile phone brands have been available on the market only for the last few years, they have still been able to cement a firm position on the market. Especially, they have become the redoubtable rivals to the giant Nokia.

2010 was the year which witnessed the appearance of a series of Vietnamese mobile phone brands, such as Q-Mobile, F-mobile. Just several years ago, people could not imagine that Vietnamese mobile phone brands could exist on the market one day. However, the success of many Vietnamese brands recently has made people change their minds. Vietnamese mobile phones have been selling well thanks to their reasonable prices

Experts said that in 2010, the giant Nokia lost its market share into the hands of Q-Mobile, a 100 percent Vietnamese brand. Q-Mobile products now account for 20 percent of the total number of mobile phones sold in the domestic market, while it ranks the second in terms of the domestic mobile phone market share.

Jumping into the mobile phone market in mid 2008, ABTel, the owner of Q-Mobile brand, is now considered the most successful enterprise in the market of Vietnamese brands.

Especially, Q-Mobile hopes it can surpass Nokia to become the leading brand in Vietnam’s mobile market one day.

Q-Mobile’s products are dominating the market for low income earners (the products are priced between 600,000 dong and two million dong).

However, while many experts happily talk about the appearance of purely Vietnamese mobile phone brands, other experts have pointed out that Vietnam has never had “made-in Vietnam mobile phone products”. The problem is that though the mobile phones bear Vietnamese brands, they are made in China, not in Vietnam.

Nguyen Quang Tung, a senior executive of An Binh Telecom also admitted that his enterprise does not manufacture Q-Mobile brand phones in Vietnam, but it outsources its production to China. Tung said that China is considered the factory of the world. Meanwhile, it is clear that Vietnam, with its underdeveloped supporting industries, cannot manufacture mobile phones.

Arguments have been raised about whether such mobile phone brands are considered Vietnamese brands. The arguments have not come to an end yet. However, experts believe that it is still a good thing that Vietnamese enterprises have been trying to make every effort to develop Vietnamese brands

Representative of a Vietnamese mobile brand frankly said: “What we are striving is that Vietnamese brand mobile phones become so cheap that even the taxi motorbike driver can also have mobile phones”.

“If iPhones are favourite on the market thanks to the applications on Apple Store, and Nokia has Ovi Store, Vietnamese mobile phone brands will have the big advantages including their prices fit the pockets of many people and they have many applications, which allow people to play games or read newspapers online.

According to VnMedia, the boom of Vietnamese mobile phone brands, which began in 2010, will be the growing tendency of the information and communication market in 2011.

Source: VnMedia

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Although the military-run Viettel lagged behind Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group (VNPT) in the VND100 trillion (US$5.14 billion) revenue race in 2010, it has deserved as the winner in terms of real capacity and achievements.

VNPT has estimated to have gained around VND101.569 trillion in revenues, a year-on-year rise of 22 percent, while the rival Viettel has expected to reach VND91.134 trillion in revenues, surging 50 percent over 2009, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Eventually, VNPT won the race, but real business quality of Viettel made it become the winner.

Average annual labor productivity of Viettel reached over VND4 billion a person and average monthly income was estimated at VND11.7 million per person a month. The equivalent figures from VNPT are unknown, but VNPT has more employees than Viettel, 90,000 compare to 24,500.

This year, the group has developed 46.3 million new mobile subscribers and 1.17 million 3G subscribers, bringing total subscriber number in the whole network to 49.9 million.

The win of VNPT is absolute and easily comprehensive because its revenues came from two big mobile providers MobiFone and VinaPhone. Moreover, VNPT had gained “monopoly” 20 years ahead of Viettel.

So, compared to the later-established Viettel, VNPT owns some advantages in experience and market share.

But Viettel has proven its capacity through “big leaps” in recent years. After almost 10 years, Viettel has become the big rival of VNPT.

No one believed that it took only four years for Viettel to surpass VNPT’s two mobile networks in terms of subscriber volume in Vietnam. While Viettel was accelerating, VNPT networks moved slowly.

Thus, Viettel has gained certain achievements and expanded overseas. And the revenues of 91.134 trillion dong were the successful sign of the group.

Analysts predicted it was inevitable Viettel could obtain the top position of VNPT in the near future.

The race was set in the beginning of 2010 by the two state-run giants. According to the initial plans, VNPT targeted to earn VND94 trillion, up 20 percent whilst Viettel set VND96 trillion, jumping 60 percent against one year earlier.

However, right after Viettel announced its 2010 revenue target, VNPT decided to adjust its targets up by VND6 trillion, showing its determination to keep its top position by gaining revenues of VND100 trillion for the first time.

The ambitious goal came along with the targeted VND15-16 trillion in minimal profit and VND8.5-8.6 trillion in tax payments.

Similarly, then Nguyen Manh Hung-Deputy general director of Viettel also confirmed Viettel modified its revenue target to more than VND100 trillion.

Experts said that VNPT had the major revenue source from two mobile networks VinaPhone and MobiFone with a combined market share of 55.41 percent in Vietnam.

In addition, the firm has another revenue source from postal, broadband internet, fixed telephone services.

For Viettel, its 60 percent revenues come from mobile information services and others from real estate, handset distribution, post and internet.

After big non-tired efforts, VNPT reported obtaining more than VND43 trillion in revenues, meeting 42 percent of the year’s target during first half. Likewise, Viettel announced to go through a half of its revenue way.

The race was overheated in the second half when Viettel tried to place VNPT behind.

With the current revenue structure, the win or failure of VNPT on the way to over VND100 trillion was burdened on MobiFone and VinaPhone.

Following a 10-15 percent reduction in service charges in August, VNPT then launched 100 percent promotional programs for both old and new subscribers from September to the end of 2010 and attracted a number of new customers.

Differently, VNPT both offered promotion programs such as presenting additional 100 percent of scratch card value or expanding mobile business to regional countries like Laos, Cambodia and Bangladesh and launching new strategies.

The company holds stakes in Vinaconex, Military Bank, and earns revenues from export import, real estate.

Source: DDDN/Tuoi Tre

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