Vietnam Internet subscriptions more than double in 12 months
HANOI - Internet subscriptions in Vietnam have more than doubled in the past
12 months reaching nearly 85,000 just three years after its introduction here, officials
said on Monday.
A total of 84,729 accounts have now been set up against 38,677 last November, the
head of the Internet control section of the Vietnam General Post Department, Tran
Minh Tan, told AFP.
The figure still represents little more than 0.1 percent of Vietnam's 78 million people
and the vast majority of subscriptions are from business clients.
Low telephone ownership has been the main barrier to development of the web --
there are still just 3.2 lines per 100 people here and personal computer ownership is
lower still.
Vietnam now has five Internet service providers but all are run by state organizations
and the authorities continue to operate firewalls which block access to websites they
find objectionable such as those of the emigre opposition.
State-Owned Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Corporation (VNPT) is still the
biggest service provider with 63 percent of the market, while Financing and
Promoting Technology (FPT) under the ministry of science and technology has
captured 29 percent.
Saigon Post and Telecommunications Service Corp has five percent while Netnam,
which launched Vietnam's own internal web three years before the November 1997
introduction of the Internet, took just three percent.
A fifth service provider, the army-run Vietnam Telecommunication Company (Vitel),
has only just been granted its operating licence.
Agence France Presse - October 2, 2000.
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