Vietnam licenses four more Internet service firms
HANOI -
Vietnam said on Tuesday it
had licensed four local firms
as Internet Service
Providers (ISP), including
two semi-private
companies.
A spokesman for the
Directorate General of
Posts and
Telecommunications
(DGPT) told Reuters the
two firms were the
Network Technology Joint
Stock Co (QTNet) and Techcom. The other two are the state-run Electricity
Telecommunications Co (ETC) and Elinco, a military-run unit.
"The licences granted to two joint-stock firms are in order to diversify the ISPs
in this market," he said but gave no further details.
The spokesman said the four new ISPs could start their service anytime but it
would take several months for them to develop a distribution network.
The latest four licences have brought to nine the total ISPs in the country, four
of which had been in operation.
ETC, an affiliate of the state utility Electricity of Vietnam, was also licensed in
September to set up networks and lease cables for domestic long-distance calls
and telecoms services using the Internet Protocol.
It is also one of the two candidates this year for a license from the DGPT to
provide more Internet gateways in Vietnam, which are now controlled by the
state-run Vietnam Data Communications Co (VDC).
VDC also provides Internet services, accounting for 57 percent share of the
ISP market, followed by the state-run Corporation for Financing and
Promoting Technology FPT with more than 30 percent. Netnam and Saigonnet
share the remainder.
In opening up the telecoms market, the government has maintained that the
Internet gateways will remain state-controlled while businesses of all economic
sectors, including foreign invested firms, could become ISPs.
It aims to boost Internet usage to around four or five percent of the population
in 2005.
Vietnam hooked up to the Internet in late 1997 but high fees and slow
connections have kept the country's total Internet subscribers at some 250,000
in a population of 80 million.
The top telecoms firm, the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Corp, which
controls VDC, planned to widen this year cable bandwidth to allow faster
Internet access, including upgrading and opening new gateways with Canada,
Singapore, Hong Kong and the United States.
Reuters - February 05, 2002.
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