HT Mobile licensed for GSM
17-MAY-2008 Intellasia | Vietnam News page 17
May 17, 2008 - 7:00:00 AM
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The Ministry of Information and Communications yesterday granted a licence to Hanoi Telecom to provide a GSM mobile-phone service until 2018.
The move follows Hanoi People's Committee's decision in March to allow Hanoi Telecom to change from its existing CDMA (Code Multiple Division Access) to GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) technology.
The fledgling mobile carrier, which trades under the name HT Mobile, is a joint venture between Hanoi Telecom and Hutchison Telecommunication.
In March it said it would stump up an additional US$150 million -on top of its initial in vestment of US$650 million for the network change.
Hanoi Telecom said one of the major reasons for HT Mobile's failure was the shortage of CDMA-enabled handsets on the market, especially when compared with the easy availability of GSM enabled handsets.
The Hanoi-based company, which debuted in January last year, currently has just 200,000 subscribers, against its initial target of one million users after one-year of operations.
HT Mobile said it would help its existing subscribers change to other networks or continue to use HT Mobile networks when the technology transfer is completed by the end of this year.
HT Mobile on January 9 asked the Ministry of Information and Communications for a licence to change from the CDMA to GSM network. Twenty days later, the government agreed in principle to the change.
Vietnam has six mobile carriers. S-Fone, HT Mobile and EVN Telecom utilise CMDA technology, while Viettel, VinaPhone and MobiFone use GSM. There are 2.5 billion GSM subscribers against 500,000 million CDMA subscribers worldwide.
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