VietNamNet Bridge - The biggest rivals of domestic mobile network operators are not other domestic mobile network operators but are rather cross-border multi-service providers who will be their most formidable rivals.

The Vietnamese mobile telecom market recently has witnessed a series of important events. 

The military telco Viettel has been intensifying its outward investment while launching a many other non-voice and non-SMS services in the domestic market. 

Meanwhile, VMS MobiFone has left VNPT to become MobiFone Corporation which provides multi-services. 

The restructuring of VNPT Group has completed, after which VNPT-Vinaphone will provide many other types of services together with traditional services.

The costly process of restructuring businesses and the heavy investments in non-voice and non-text services, according to analysts, show the strong determination to deploy new business strategy.

They said that in fact, Vietnamese telecom groups have no other choice than redrawing up their business strategies, because this is a new tendency in the world.

The reports of Budde Comm and Strand Consulting showed that the ARPU (average revenue per user) gained by South Korean companies is now equal to that in developed countries (approximately $25 per subscriber per month), though South Korean GDP per capita was just equal to 1/3 of the developed countries in 2014.

The impressive growth has been attributed to the fact that South Korea began providing non-voice and non-SM services very soon on the basis of the 4G-LTE high-speed data network deployment since 2010. The content services provided to end users are very diversified, from entertainment, education to health care, tourism and e-commerce.

Dao Trung Thanh, deputy director of MVV Mobile, who has been working in the telecom sector for the last 20 years,said cross-border service providers will be the biggest rivals for Vietnamese mobile network operators.

It is now easier and cheaper than ever before to access high-speed data networks, especially in emerging markets.

“Mobile network operators will have to turn into service providers. They have to provide the services customers need, not provide what they have,” he said.

Google and Facebook, according to Thanh, are providing services allowing access to the internet at high speed globally, competing with traditional telecom networks. 

Nearly all Vietnamese smart device owners use content services through global app stores such as Apple AppStore, Google Play and Windows Appstore.

A representative of a mobile network said there was no congestion in the 2015 Lunar New Year holiday. 

He said this was ‘bad news’ because this showed that people can send Happy New Year messages through OTT apps, instead of relying on voice and SMS services.

Buu Dien