| Although Vietnam's mobile operators claim to have a combined 17 million subscribers. However, industry watchers believe that as of the end of July, there were more like 11 million active subscriber accounts.
The Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Corporation (VNPT) attributed the discrepancy to a high turnover rate among new mobile subscribers. While MobileFone and VinaFone each signed up about 1.7 million new clients in the first eight months of 2006, VNPT said as many as 50% of new subscribers would soon switch networks again.
The nation's top carriers, MobiFone, VinaFone and Viettel, publish monthly results of subscription drives and do extensive promotion campaigns. While such programmes result in many new subscribers, clients repeatedly switch to other networks to take advantage of the latest discounts.
The corporation has reported that only 3.7 million of MobileFone's more than 5 million registered subscribers maintained active accounts. If the proportion of inactive accounts is similar at Viettel, which reports 4 million subscribers, it would have no more than 2.2 million active accounts. Similarly, S-Fone and EVN Telecom would have no more than a combined 500,000 active accounts, considerably lower than figures quoted by each company.
To avoid the publication of misleading subscription figures, the Ministry of Post and Telematics said VNPT was preparing regulations to require telecom companies to report business activities accurately. The ministry said it would then determine a way of calculating the actual number of active accounts in the country.
Source: Thai News Service - WDR/Intelecon Regulatory News
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