Mobile carriers in Vietnam will have less freedom in their promotions to prepaid subscribers following a circular by the Ministry of Information and Communications enforcing a ceiling on how much ‘free value’ can be offered. Specifically, telecom providers in the country are now only allowed to offer no more than 20 percent of a service’s value to prepaid subscribers as a bonus during promotional campaigns. The limit will apply to different forms of promotion, including bonus credits, in-kind benefits, and other perks. Previously, the maximum promotional value was set at 50 percent for both prepaid and post-paid subscribers. This limit remains unchanged for the latter. According to the Ministry of Information and Communications, the new promotion ceiling aims to promote post-paid subscriptions and represents a crackdown on the abuse of prepaid SIM cards to send out spam messages, a technique typically employed by advertisers and online scammers. The regulation will also ensure fairer competition in the telecom market and better protect the rights of mobile subscribers, the ministry said. Prepaid users who switch to post-paid subscription plans will enjoy the 50-percent promotion limit after the switch. “Mobile carriers found to be in violation of this new regulation will be subject to administrative penalties and tax arrears for illegal promotional campaigns,” a ministry official said. Recently, three major providers in Vietnam – Viettel, Mobifone and Vinaphone – were forced to stop offering data plans that granted subscribers unlimited data to access Facebook and YouTube. These plans were found to be in… [Read full story]
The Hanoitimes - After a Circular issued by the Ministry of Information and Communications, effective since April 13, mobile phone subscribers still cannot escape harassment of unwanted advertisers and irritating marketing messaging, which they had hoped they would be free off.Mobile subscribers still suffer harassment with unwanted SMS because of one-time subscribers who buy a SIM card without registering or providing personal informationBesides they are required to provide details such as full name, ID or passport number and date of birth, when registering for a new mobile phone or else mobile operators have instructions to stop providing service.According to the…... [read more]
With compulsory prepaid mobile registration coming into effect yesterday there seems to be a few problems with the registration process and the time limit. Regarding registration procedures, subscribers are asked to provide their personal information via SMS to the general 1414 switchboard from which each mobile operator can collect the data. With a high probability of over-load as all mobile users call the same switchboard, wouldn't it better for each provider to set up their own switchboard. In addition most prepaid subscribers in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and other provinces know very little about the registration formalities and there…... [read more]
The Hanoi Times - The latest inspection by the Ministry of Information and Communication has found that 90 percent of prepaid mobile phone subscribers have registered SIM cards with incorrect personal information. Following the investigation, the ministry has fined agencies of mobile phone operators VND1 billion (US$54,156) for violations including registering cards in the names of their customers, or activating SIM cards without requesting customers' personal information as regulated, local newswire VnExpress reported . Some agencies of MobiFone were found registering many customers with the same names and dates of birth, but with different ID numbers, it added Inspectors also…... [read more]
The Ministry of Information and Communications wants to fortify regulations on prepaid mobile-phone services (Photo: U.Phuong) Inspectors at the Ministry of Information and Communications have called for greater regulation of prepaid mobile-phone subscriptions to bring the runaway market under control. They also want service providers to stop issuing multifunctional sim cards and providing three times the value of new subscribers' first purchase. They have found mobile phone service agents submitting false subscriber information to receive commissions and want the practice of paying commissions banned. The agents almost have a free hand in buying and selling sim cards, leading to a chaotic…... [read more]
The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) said the total mobile population of the four largest mobile operators in Vietnam is around 48 million. However, is the figure really as high as this? According to MIC, these are subscribers who could make and receive calls or could receive calls at the time of survey. Viettel ranks at the top with 19.42 million users, followed by MobiFone with 13.4 million, VinaPhone 12.1 million and S-Fone 3.14 million. The figures are indicators for the development of new subscribers of mobile operators. With 48 million mobile subscribers, this means that over 56% of…... [read more]
