Vietnam to cut telecom charges by 20 percent
HANOI - Vietnam will start slashing its telecom charges
by 20 percent next month to bring them in line with
international rates, an official said Tuesday.
Begining July 1, charges for local leased lines will be cut
by an average of 20 percent, while charges for
international leased lines will also be slashed by the same
rate effective Aug. 1, said an official with the state
regulatory body, the Directorate General of Post and
Telecommunications.
The DGPT also plans to cut international telephone
charges by 10 to 15 percent sometime in July, he said,
adding that Internet connection rates and mobile phone
charges will also be lowered. He did not give specifics.
Vietnam, which currently has 3.5 million telephone
subscribers, including more than 700,000 mobile phone
users, has one of the highest telecommunications charges
in the world
This will be the eighth time in eight years that Vietnam has
reduced its telecommunication charges.
Currently, international calls from Vietnam are double the
cost of calls from other countries in the Southeast Asian
region such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, and
three times more than the cost of international calls from
the United States.
The official said the DGPT has granted licences to the
state monopoly Vietnam Post and Telecommunications
Corp (VNPT), the Army Electronic Telecommunications
Corp (Vietel) and joint stock company Saigon Postel to
offer Voice-over Internet Protocol services.
Under the licences, beginning from July 1, the three
companies will offer telecom services on VoIP in all 61
provinces and to all countries which have the same
services, he said. Costs will be about half the charges on
regular phone lines, he said.
Last year, Vietel was allowed to offer the VoIP services
between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City on a trial basis. It
became popular so quickly that the system regularly got
jammed. The DGPT recently had to provide Vietel more
channels to settle the problem.
The Associated Press - June 27, 2001.
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