~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

[Year 1997]
[Year 1998]
[Year 1999]
[Year 2000]
[Year 2001]
[Year 2002]

Vietnam launches first private ISP

Vietnam has launched its first private Internet service provider in an effort to boost Internet usage in the communist country. Ho Chi Minh City-based One Connection, set up a year ago, launched its Internet service operation on Friday, said Nguyen Quoc Cuong, the company's technical chief.

Currently, there are five operating ISPs in the country, all of them state-owned. Cuong said two other private ISPs have been licensed by the government but they have not begun operating yet. The Internet, which was introduced in 1997 in Vietnam, is strictly regulated by the government and service providers are required to monitor the information on their network. There are nearly 200,000 Internet subscribers and about 1 million Internet users in Vietnam, which has about 80 million people.

The government has set an ambitious target of 1.1 million to 1.3 million Internet subscribers and 3.5 million to 4.2 million Internet users by 2005.

The Associated Press - January 11, 2003.