Ola Ree, Head of Norway’s Telenor Representative Office in Vietnam, told TMCnet Editor Michelle Robart during the International Telecommunications Conference in Hanoi earlier this month, that the Vietnamese telecommunication market, mainly mobile phone business, is rapidly moving ahead, beyond his company’s expectation. Telenor began its operation in Vietnam in 2005, and expects to become a strategic partner of one of the Vietnamese mobile phone businesses.
Ola Ree said Telenor is committed to participate in the local market as a strategic investor when state-owned mobile phone businesses are allowed to be equitised.
Based on the optimistic messages from Ola Ree and other industry specialist, Michelle Robart reports that Vietnam’s telecom industry growth will make it an appealing market in the near future.
Telephone subscribers in the country hit 58 million by the end of May, including 48 million phone subscribers, representing a rate of 67 telephones per 100 people.
For 2008, Vietnam has had nearly 6 million Internet subscribers so far, and almost 19.5 million users. ADSL Internet subscribers have also increased in the past four years – in 2004, there were 50,000 subscribers and in April 2008, there were 1.5 million.
