So far, the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) has licensed four enterprises to provide virtual mobile network services (MVNO) in Vietnam, including Indochina Telecom, Mobicast, ASIM, and Digilife. 

According to the MIC’s Department of Telecommunications, as of April 30, the number of mobile phone subscribers of these carriers reached 2.65 million, accounting for 2.1% of the total number of subscribers in the whole market.

Currently, the Vietnamese mobile market has a low Average Revenue Per Unit (ARPU) and strong competition from over-the-top (OTT) services. The Vietnamese mobile market needs a new wind. The participation of virtual mobile operators is expected to contribute to diversifying types of services for digital transformation in the fields of finance, education, health, entertainment, etc.

Previously, Mr. Nguyen Phong Nha, Deputy Director of the Department of Telecommunication, said that MVNO is a new model in Vietnam. It can quickly deploy services nationwide, save infrastructure and resources, and bring new value to customers.

In terms of advantages, virtual mobile networks do not have to invest in infrastructure, but only buy traffic from carriers with infrastructure. Thus, the virtual mobile network only focuses on the business stage to design products suitable for customers. Virtual mobile networks will choose a certain niche.

However, virtual mobile networks are heavily dependent on mobile network operators. Moreover, the virtual mobile network model is quite new in Vietnam and still needs to improve management policies to promote competition.

It is necessary to have a clear policy on the conditions to join the virtual mobile network market and avoid cases where the network operators have infrastructure to set up barriers to limit the virtual network's participation in the market.

In 2010, the MIC licensed a number of virtual mobile networks such as VTC, FPT... Under the license, VTC will provide mobile communication services on the 3G infrastructure of EVN Telecom and roaming with local 2G networks. 

At that time, VTC Digicom (a subsidiary of VTC) said that the company would provide mobile communication services on the 3G infrastructure of EVN Telecom. VTC would also consider roaming options with other mobile networks to expand service coverage for customers. Although FPT was licensed for a virtual mobile network, at that time, it did not offer a business plan and cooperate with network operators on infrastructure.

Trong Dat