VietNamNet Bridge - Surveyors’ conclusions that the majority of Vietnamese users are satisfied with 3G service quality has raised controversy.

GFK, a well-known international market survey firm, and Buu Dien Viet Nam newspaper several days ago released a report about their survey’s results, saying that 60 percent of Vietnamese users said the 3G service quality is “acceptable” and 84 percent said the quality deserves the money they pay. 

Meanwhile, 92 percent of users said they would agree if mobile network operators raised the 3G service fee.

The survey was conducted of 576 users in the country’s three largest cities, Hanoi, HCM City and Da Nang, between November 2014 and January 2015.

The survey said that only 8 percent of 3G users would not use 3G service if mobile network operators raised the fees. This surprised many current 3G users.

Eighty two percent of users said the less-than-5-percent increase would not affect their behavior. 

If the fee increased by 5-10 percent, 59 percent would shift to use cheaper service packages, but would not change service providers. 

However, If the increase is sharper, by more than 10 percent, 47 percent of users would seek other service providers.

“The survey is unbelievable,” a member of a telecom forum wrote. He noted the survey showed “unreliable” and “inaccurate” results, because the surveyors asked “spider” questions so as to get misleading answers which benefit mobile network operators.

One question was as follows: Assume that 3G service providers are going to raise service fees. What fee increase will you accept? 1) less than 5 percent 2) 5-10 percent 3) 10-20 percent 4) more than 30 percent and 5) do not agree.

VietNamNet newspaper also questioned its readers on 3G service quality and received the opposite answers.

The question was: Do you think it is necessary to raise 3G service fee at this moment? And the four options were 1) no more than 5 percent 2) 5-10 percent 3) over 10 percent and 4) no increase.

The newspaper reported that 98.36 percent of the 3,291 answers it had received by 5 pm on April 24 chose the fourth option (no increase).

Phap Luat Viet Nam quoted Nguyen Manh Hung, deputy chair of Vinastas, the association protecting Vietnamese consumers, as saying that the GFK survey surprised him.

Some questioned whether the surveyors “invented” the statistics under an order placed by mobile network operators.

“I think the survey aims to pave the way for a new move of mobile network operators to raise the 3G fee once again,” a VietNamNet reader wrote.

Dinh Ngoc Bao Tran from GFK denied that assumption.

PLVN