Lucent opens Vietnam sale office, plans to expand
HANOI - U.S. telecoms equipment maker Lucent Technologies Inc. (LU.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Thursday it planned to expand its operations in Vietnam after a deal to supply CDMA technology-based equipment for a Vietnamese mobile phone firm.
"The company sees growing need for mobility technology in Asia's second-fastest growing telecommunications market," Lucent said in a statement as it opened its first Vietnam sale office in the capital Hanoi.
Last June, Lucent won a deal in Vietnam to supply equipment to EVN Telecom, an affiliate of state utility Electricity of Vietnam, for a wireless CDMA network enabling voice and high-speed data services in the country's northern provinces.
"Our development of CDMA communications networks for both rural and urban areas of Vietnam has been successful," Bart Vogel, president of Lucent Technologies Asia Pacific, said in the statement, referring to Code Division Mutiple Access technology.
EVN Telecom said it was testing its E-Mobile network for a debut later in March. The launch would make it the country's second network after S-Fone using CDMA technology, the main wireless standard in the United States.
S-Fone, a joint venture with a South Korean consortium, now has around 400,000 subscribers.
EVN Telecom director Nguyen Manh Bang was quoted on Wednesday's Vietnam News newspaper as saying the firm aimed for 1 million subscribers by the end of 2006.
Lucent's statement cited a 2005 rating by the International Telecommunications Union ranking Vietnam the second fastest- growing telecoms market in Asia after China.
The Southeast Asian country has four mobile phone networks in operation, including state-run Vinaphone and MobiFone, the military-run Viettel and S-Fone.
A fifth player, Hanoi Telecom, is also preparing to launch a CDMA third-generation network by the first half of 2006. A unit of the Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. (0013.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) is a partner in the venture that runs Hanoi Telecoms.
Last year, Vietnam's telecoms revenues jumped 9.5 percent on the year to $2.3 billion, after a 40 percent rise between 2003 and 2004. The country of 83 million had 15.6 million telephones at the end of 2005, more than half of them mobile phones.
Reuters - March 9, 2006.
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